FanCam: Severus Snape and the Marauders (2016)

Due to unforseen circumstances, I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I think that the book series is well done, nay, excellent and a worthy heir to Tolkien's throne. The characterizations and plot are vivid and magical. This translates to the films, too. The Harry Potter films are very well done and translates that sense of magic and desperation and hope beautifully. Therefore, much like a Star Wars or a Lord of the Rings, you have two ways to go about a fan film: so amateurish it's fun and hokey OR well done and worthy of the original films/narratives. Severus Snape and the Marauders is incredibly well done and really does honor the tone and characters of the original films!

Movie Review: Some Call It Loving (1973; James B. Harris Productions/Etiquette Pictures)

...one really has to hand it to the experimental filmmaker...the determination...the creativity...the tenacity...sometimes, the outright gall and daring, to somehow manage to get the approving salute, in producing a vision wrought from a most unexpected and unconventional ilk, whether it be from a first-time filmmaker...or a protege of a more high-profile filmmakers, who want to throw his hand into the arena...or a filmmaker who has garnished and nurtured a reputation for a certain style, and out of the blue, wants to do something outrageously different, not unlike an inch that one just has to scratch. And then, there's the experimental filmmaker, who's a seasoned pro at always dipping one's big toe into the fray...always coming out with something totally off-the-wall...something that's wholly expected from that particular filmmaker, but nonetheless, something we as anticipating viewers remain unprepared for, each and every time...

...without a doubt, y'all know some, if not all of these provocative filmmakers; heck, a mere four reviews ago, on this reviewer's docker, we examined the humble, albeit eclectic beginnings of one such fledgling director...E. Elias Merhige, who's higher-profile "Suspect Zero" and "Shadow of the Vampire" was preceded by the wholly experimental, unflinchingly visceral, religiously allegoric horror film, "Begotten". Of course, there's the renowned filmmaker Christopher Nolan, of "Memento", "The Prestige" and "The Dark Knight" fame, who hit the scene early on, with a daring vision of human study, called "The Following". Director Darren Aronofsky went on to bigger things, but still remained within the 'let's try this on for size' experimental venue, with films like "Requiem for a Dream", "Black Swan" and "The Wrestler"...but before all that, he just had to get 1998's "Pi" out of his system. And leave us not forget filmmaking auteur David Lynch, who quite literally has made a career out of outrageously unconventional and provocative filmmaking...his production repertoire is as widely spectrumed as it is immense, starting with a classic amongst classic experimental film productions...that being 1977's understatedly bizarre and surreal "Eraserhead"...

Movie Review: The Crown and the Dragon (2013)

I love a good dragon movie! Except when it’s about slaying dragons. Then I’m all ‘WTF, a-holes?’ I don’t get many fantasy movies in my CHC care packages so it’s a refreshing change of pace from the usual rubber guts and cheap CGI and poorly written scripts.

Well, at least this one didn’t have the rubber guts.

The Crown and the Dragon has a three-week voice over in the beginning, explaining the terrible Trelanis or Vitalians who decided to conquer nearby lands filled with Dagons or Derins (honestly, I heard every possible pronunciation of these people and I STILL don’t know what the fuck they are all called). Let’s just call them The Douchevanians and The Lameites.

Movie Review: I, Frankenstein (2013; Lakeshore Entertainment/Liongate)

...a hypothetical question, if I may: Given the countless examination and variations on authoress Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's immortal horror classic...the films, the books, even that imaginatively scribed by the feeble, albeit able-minded hand of Shelley, herself...what message, overall, was the original 1818 novel, called "Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus" trying to explore and expound upon?? That there were certain things that man was not meant to know?? That absolute tragedy, turmoil and nightmarish horrors await, whoever dares to emulate the power of God?? That science and technology must evolve, even in the face of the status quo's fear of the unknown & unexplored, and that there will always be the daring and unconventional one, who is bravely, sometimes recklessly willing to take that step into the unknown, no matter what it takes, no matter what the stakes, as well as the results are...and no matter what consequences, nay even what punishment awaits, as the result??...

...of course, you've heard the story before: Dedicated and obsessed scientist, going against the grain of his teachings...and yet, taking those very same teachings, far and beyond what his educators might have imagined...or would not dare to blasphemously consider...aspires to create a being, from the assembled parts of the dead, using nature's own dark forces, chemically and that wrought from the electrically charged heavens. At first, elatedly relishing his success at reanimating the pieces/parts corpse, Victor Frankenstein is quickly repulsed and disgusted at the unbearable ugliness of his soulless creation, and as such, rejects the misshapen creature, and attempts to destroy it. Driven into a forsaken life of wandering solitude, as the result of his ugliness, as well as the rejection by his 'father'...the creature, whose mental and vocal capacities develop quite rapidly, trudges through a solitary life, learning of what it means to be human...learning of how he came to be...feared by all whom he encounters...and very much desiring the luxury of companionship...someone like himself, who will not reject him. Returning to Frankenstein's home, the creature murderously coerces the doctor to repeat his experiment, in an effort to create a female companion for him; when the experiment fails, and the newly born female creature indeed shrieks at the very sight of her inhuman predecessor, the monster is once again forced into isolation, filled with rage. However, Victor Frankenstein...now in the throes of personal tragedy and emotional turmoil, as the result of the creatures' murderous effect on his life...relentlessly pursues his creation, with the intent of destroying him, once and for all...

Movie Review: "Jodorowsky's Dune" (2014; Sony Pictures Classics)

...say you have a standard; a set standard, once innovative and unique. A standard, which initially might have instilled a sense of 'wow', amongst the masses, and now, is wholly accepted as 'the norm'...maybe even to the point of yawn-inducing. Then, as the cliched phrase goes, "...just when you've thought that you've seen everything under the sun, along comes..."; an artist, known and reputed for outrageousness...an embraceable outrageousness, with a respectable following, mind you, but clearly, a level of imaginative 'over-the-top' craziness, with an underlining hint of wisdom...'thinking outside the box', as yet another cliched saying goes. And so, that artist takes that now.monotone standard, filters it through a different set of eyes, and suggests quite literally turning that standard on it's head...breathing new life into it, and yet, retaining the crust of what the standard stood for and meant...

...for this viewer, I love 'what if' scenarios. I became amoured with the 'what if' concept, at an early age, when the artistic and creative 'power-that-be', scribbling away at Marvel Comics, ingeniously came up with a unique and absolutely 'off-the-wall' comic book series, which took many of the super-powered hero standards...at a minimum, tweaked their histories...their mythos, here and there, and at most, quite literally shook the contents of the standard into a frenzied mish-mash...stood back, and gandered at what the outcome would be, storywise and direction, given the changes. As the result, some unique, creative...even bizarre and surreal ideas came to pass, and Marvel's "What If...??" series proved a phenomenal favorite, back in it's day...

Movie Review: Young Detective Dee: Rise Of The Sea Dragon (Well Go USA, Blu-ray, 2013)

Review By: Rob Sibley

Now this is a proper return to form! Tsui Hark has been (in my opinion) a slump until his previous film "Detective Dee". It was a very good take on a Sherlock Holmes style character dropped into the Tang Dynasty era. But the first film was hit and miss. Sure it was thrilling to an extent but at the end of the day it was underwhelming.

I'm happy to report part II  is better then the first. It's a damn near perfect film actually. I know many of you like me kind of tuned out on Hark after he made three clunkers in a row. Knock Off (not Van Damme's finest moment), Zu Warriors (horrid) and the fun but very cheesy Black Mask 2 which had Traci Lords, Tobin Bell and Tyler Mane. Then out of the clear blue came "Seven Swords" with Donnie Yen which made me think "This kat still might have it. Now skipping ahead to Detective Dee: Rise Of The Sea Dragon. It's one of the best prequels of all time.

Movie Review: Virgin and the Lover/Lustful Feelings (1973/1976; Vinegar Syndrome)

...ya' know?? There's an old saying, once often waved and bantered about the '70's, that said 'different strokes for different folks'; the phrase easily suggested that...hey, everyone is different, and what 'does it' for one person, might not 'do it' for another, no matter how standard, or how unusual 'it' is. Today, the saying might read more like 'whatever floats your boat', or for those more into the indivisible pleasure & pain virtues of a certain Leviathan-ruled, hellish underworld, the mantra might be '...what's your pleasure, sir?' In the end, no matter how it reads, the 'song (always) remains the same'...as Led Zeppelin once sang, and in reiterating, what 'turns on' one person may well be different from what 'turns on' another. Strangely enough...though probably not readily admitted by most...the more unusual the 'turn on', in seeing it through another's eyes, the more irresistibly compelling it is...almost as if one of 'the norm' sees, and is drawn towards something, which one just can't have...that is, without feeling out of 'the norm'. Such tortured complexity of character and emotion...in self-discovery, self-expression and self-indulgence...is the flavor of the moment, as Vinegar Syndrome lets their freak flag fly, in their latest 'drive-in' double feature offering, by 'blue movie' auteur Kemal Horulu (...previously spotlighted, with one of V/S's previous 'drive-in' double feature pairing, "The Sexualist" and "Wendy's Palace"). Lurid & tawdry tales of tortured drama, obsessive longings...and wildly erotic fantasies fulfilled...

Movie Review: "The Beast of Hollow Mountain/The Neanderthal Man" (1956/53; Shout/Scream Factory)

...what was it, that old saying, about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery?? Point in case, the little guy...filmmaker-wise...who is inspired to 'knock off' something put out by the big-leaguers. We've seen and heard this one before, time and time again...and we've resigningly come to accept the fact that, for good or bad...for every 'Alien', there's a 'Galaxy of Terror', an 'Xtro' and an 'Inseminoid', just to give one of the more obvious examples. However, every once in a blue moon, just the opposite happens...'opposite', in the sense that a fairly good, albeit forgettable and negligible genre idea is put out there, for all the masses to see...an 'underdog' production contender, so to speak...only to have greater life breathed into such ideas, by big-studio efforts...upheld to the point where they stand out more prominently, historically, than the underlings with the original concept...in effect, making those who were there, first, almost forgotten. Alas, and yet in a way, thankfully, such is the latter case, with regards to a duo of lower-tiered classic 'B', creature-feature-style, sci-fi/horror flicks, recently showcased together, on one of Shout/Scream Factory's two-fer combo packs...

Movie Review: One Touch of Venus (1948, Olive Films)

...Mr. Peabody, if you would, set the 'way-back' machine to a window of time...a span of years, from the mid-30's, to the late 40's...an uneasy and tumultuous era of progressively nation-involving conflict, culminating & peaking with World War II, and then, the post-war years...nations mourning their brave and battled dead. This was a time when whimsical escapism, fantastic flights of fantasy, and accompanying musical merriment held reign, in the cool and spectacled shrines...those movie palaces of yesteryear. 1941's "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" offered battling boxers, taken away too soon, and coming back to life, haven been given another chance...1937's "Topper" afforded us fun-loving earthbound ghosts, in search of a good deed...1947's "Down to Earth" brought down the very gods from above, solely for the purpose of inspiration...1943's "A Guy Named Joe" also had it's inspiring heavenly protagonist, though in the unlikely guise of a beloved, albeit deceased pilot...1947's "The Bishop's Wife" and 1934's "Death Takes a Holiday" had watchful heavenly angels, as well as brooding angels of death, assuming human form...1944's "Outward Bound" caught snapshot glimpses of a select few in a post-death, afterlife state of limbo, bound for otherworldly destinations...and even the goddess Venus herself, could not help but come down from the heavens, in search of true love, by way of a bumbling, albeit hopelessly lovelorn department store window dresser, in the light-hearted, musically laden, romantic fantasy/comedy fluff from 1948, "One Touch of Venus"...

Movie Review: The Four (2012, Well Go Entertainment)

...this viewer recalls quite well, the first time being privy to the jaw-dropping martial arts action style and dynamics of filmmaker Gordon Chan...and that one film, which I saw at the time, had me indelibly hooked on his films, from then on. It was 1994, and my local mom-and-pop, hole-in-the-wall cult film movie revival theater (...now, regretfully, a stuffy, experimental/independent/art-house movie theater, which I rarely visit) was running it's yearly, two-week long Asian film festival. One of the films on the double-feature bill, on the particular day of my theater patronage, was "Fist of Legend", starring the up & coming, flavor-of-the-moment martial arts star, Jet Li; now, I had heard of Jet Li...knew of his growing film presence, long before he was revered by a general movie-going audience in the U.S. Heck, this viewer even had a couple of his older films, in an ever-swelling film collection (...a paltry 3,000 or so titles, at the time; don't EVEN ask the official number, now...lest your jaw drop to the floor). "Fist of Legend", without a doubt, gave Li a respectability in film, nearly equal to that of the late great Bruce Lee. However, as far as behind the camera, and relatively unknown to this viewer at the time, was director Chan...and WHOA!! What a place to start!! The viewer could assuredly scribble a pretty lengthy review, praising the greatness of "Fist of Legend", and how well it was filmed & put together. In short, to say that I was blown away, would be an understatement. After that, I made it a point to seek out any of Chan's earlier directorial efforts, as well as any future film endeavors, which bore his name. Notable titles in his respectable repertoire include..."18 Golden Destroyers", "Fight Back to School", "Royal Tramp", "King of Beggars", "Beast Cops"...but in this viewers mind, it always came right down to the fact that "Fist of Legend" was (...and as you will soon read, STILL is) the pinnacle triumph of his career...his absolute finest achievement. Admittedly, I have not been particularly privy to anything notably stand-out, deriving out of Gordon Chan's still prolific film making arena, over the past several years. And unfortunately, if his latest...the 2012 martial arts fantasy actioner, "The Four" is any indication of his furthered evolution...well, I guess that this viewer will have to continue hoping that one day, Chan will top, or at the very least match the likes of his celebrated "...Legend"...'cause "The Four" sure as heck ain't gonna cut it, in that respect...

Movie Review: Bullet Collector (2012, DVD)

Review By: Rob Sibley

Sobiratel Pul aka “The Bullet Collector” is hands down the best art house movie I've seen so far in 2013. It's unlike any other art house film I've seen. The film is being compared to François Truffaut's 400 Blows which is understandable since the story itself parallels the 1959 French classic. But besides with dealing with similar issues the two films couldn't be more different. This Russian film is the first feature length film from Aleksandr Vartanov, who's only previous credit was as a co-director on a Russian sitcom.

This is an incredible debut feature film, I never would have guessed that this is Vartanov's first real time behind the camera. I should say right off the bat that this is either a love it or hate it sort of film. As with a lot of Russian films the subject matter is incredibly dark and depressing. But if you look closely enough through all the bleakness, grit and grime there is some hidden beauty to be found in this picture.

Movie Review: SuckerPunch (2011)

by Peggy Christie


SuckerPunch is the story of Babydoll , an unfortunate young woman whose stepfather tries to rape her after her mother’s death. But because she puts up too much of a fight, he goes for her younger sister. Babydoll don’t brook that BS so she takes a gun to him, accidentally killing her sister instead. Hence, he tosses her into a mental institution.

The stepdad pays off an orderly to get a special doctor into the asylum in five days to lobotomize our poor nubile young lady so she can’t tell the real truth to the cops. Bastard.

Cinema Head Cheese: The Podcast! #32 - Pleasantly Surprised

Jeff talks about his recent date night with the wife and his surprise enjoyment of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. He also brings up Magnet's Outrage, Night Train Murders and the campy horror film Pork Chop.

Kevin has a pleasant surprise of his own with Bradley Cooper's recent film Limitless. He also talks about the British series Merlin and the terrible drama Lost Everything.

Click here to listen or right click and choose "Save Link As..." to download.

Click on any of the links above to purchase at Amazon.com and support Cinema Head Cheese and Abnormal Entertainment!

Movie Review: In the Name of the King, A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007)

Uwe Boll is generally considered the worst mainstream director alive today. From horror movies based on video games (House of the Dead) to ... other horror-type films based on video games (Bloodraine, Postal), Boll shows his ineptitude with not just the camera but with dialog, actors, scripts, and pretty much every other aspect of film. Watching a Boll movie is a gut check for even the most die hard bad film seeker like myself. There is just nothing good this man does to the movie screen, and one wonders why anyone helps him finance his projects.


Buy In the Name of the King - A Dungeon Siege Tale on DVD

However, one has to respect Dr. Boll, for he manages to keep cranking out product year after year with no money from Hollywood and a steady stream of Big Name Actors (although, to be fair, most of them are no longer A-list by the time he gets them - kind of like Ed Wood and Bela Lugosi without the heroin). Which brings us to his 2007 overblown fantasy project "In The Name of the King, a Dungeon Siege Tale", which was based on, you guessed it, a video game.