King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen (2017) Documentary Review

I got the screener for this documentary last year, but being a lazy asshole, I never got around to it. With the recent passing of Mr. Cohen, I thought it was high time I STOP being a lazy asshole and view it. Now that I’ve watched it, I feel like even more of an asshole, and am sorry I took so long to experience it.

As someone who never really paid that close attention to the people behind the scenes of a movie (writer, director, cinematographer, etc.) I didn’t even know Larry Cohen’s name. I have, however, seen a few of his films, and they certainly have made a lasting impression.

This documentary doesn’t delve too deeply into his childhood and upbringing, but instills in us his early proclivity toward creativity and imagination. Though his career as a stand-up comedian didn’t pan out, the art behind performing and writing a good show definitely translated into his television and movie career.

It seemed natural, too, that his career evolved from writer, to director, and eventually producer. From what he (and everyone who knew him) said, he didn’t like other people screwing up his work, so why not just do it himself? That didn’t stop him from getting fired off a few jobs (when there was a separate production company involved.) But even so, by that point, he’d have gotten what he wanted from the show, and was then able to move on to other projects.

According to his second wife, he was a prolific idea man, and could write up to twenty-five pages every day!

I’m not going to discuss every film brought up in the documentary, or cover every detail explored. The one thing I really took away from this was a shared consensus on Larry’s genius. His films were powerful and raw; his creative eye allowed him to make a location as much a character as any actor in the film; his guerrilla warfare tactics on filming kept his movies more budget friendly, and it’s part of what makes his films so “Larry.”

On a more personal level, everyone interviewed for this documentary remembered Larry as a generous, kind, funny, sweet, kinda wacky, fearless man, and one of the most brilliant filmmakers to ever come around the scene. His style could never be reproduced today, which is a little sad, but also makes his legacy that much more enduring. For me, his movie, The Stuff, has always been, and continues to be, a favorite – even though, when I first saw it, I never understood its “wink wink” statement on consumerism and unethical business practices that were rampant in the eighties.

For anyone who wants to learn more about Larry Cohen, or would like a deeper look to his writing/directing life, this documentary is a must. Then go seek out his shows and movies. I know I will, and I’ll be able appreciate them from a perspective I didn’t have this morning.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Cohen.

5 Hatchets (out of 5)

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Movie Review: Dead Love (2018)

Let’s see if I can continue riding the luck train, and this second screener I got doesn’t suck ass.

Dead Love opens with Brandon losing his mother. For some reason she commits suicide, and Brandon is left to pick up the pieces. When having to deal with funeral arrangements, the woman who runs Pine Meadow funeral home, Cat, invites him to dinner in exchange for the cost of the casket. She claims it’s because he’s a local and everyone there is like family, but the truth is her sister, Fiona, wants him.

Thus begins the courtship of Brandon and Fiona. And like all good, stable relationships, Fiona keeps a lot of secrets, and doesn’t reveal the whole truth of who she and her family are until she’s desperate - for what, I can’t tell you, but trust me, it’s a doozie.

Does Brandon love her enough to overlook the lies?

Cinema Head Cheese: Podshort! - American Vandal: Season 1 (Funny or Die/Netflix, 2017)

Along with a high school documentary crew who will stop at nothing to get the real story, Kevin Moyers asks #WhoDrewTheDicks?

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The Scarlet Scorpion (1990) and Deadtime Stories (1986) Double Movie Review

Just when I thought I was making a dent in the pile of tripe. I mean…no, that’s what I mean. As I get closer to the bottom of the stack of DVDs, sometimes I get a double disc and dammit, that means I’m really not that much closer to getting through this craptastic supply!

But this time it’s okay because these were actually kinda fun, for the most part.

The Scarlet Scorpion comes to us from Brazil. It opens with what looks like those news reels that used to play in theaters back in the 40s and 50s. After a few stories, it closes with the announcement that the long loved The Angel comic has been adapted for radio! People across the country are shown stopping EVERYTHING they do just to listen in each week. And I mean everything - even a local priest refuses to continue an exorcism because he’s got more important stuff to do! Like find out in this week’s chapter of The Scarlet Scorpion what that rapscallion bad guy is up to and who he's trying to kill!

As the show airs each week, it seems in the real world someone is mimicking the crimes portrayed in the show. Is there a real Scarlet Scorpion running around? Gloria, a local designer, is the only one who seems to connect the dots. The police laugh her out of the station but the director of the show thinks she might be on to something. So let’s create a fan based program around her theories! We never actually get to hear it, though, because the Scarlet Scorpion is targeting her next.

Will he kill Gloria to get her off his trail? Will Alvaro Aguiar, writer and creator, be able to save his lady love on the show AND in real life? Stay tuned to find out. But first, a word from our sponsor…

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Movie Review: Mississippi Mermaid (1969; MGM/Twilight Time)

...braving the lambast-worthy gauntlet of losing some respectable points as one of many cult film auteurs out there, the respected 'comma, then title' moniker which this reviewer make an unabashed claim to...he...uh, he (...stutter, stutter)...he has to candidly, and...swell, quite shamefully admit, he...uh, he (...stutter, stutter) had never partaken of a film, produced and directed by the great Francois Truffaut...that is, until now. Admittedly, as a very young and budding embracee of cult films, this reviewer had heard of this extraordinarily masterful filmmaker, at least enough to know that his film artistry was, at the very least, something more than noteworthy, and he was even dimly privy to some of Truffaut's early film work (...'fancy-schmancy arthouse' films, I called them back then...and as a youth...well, perhaps it was understandable that I wasn't into 'fancy-schmancy', though indeed, such films were as yet beyond my level of understanding and appreciation, at the time), without actually having seen them...classics like "Fahrenheit 451", "Story of Adele H" and "Shoot the Pianist", amongst others...

...no siree...this reviewer's first exposure to Francois Truffaut wasn't even his prowess at film direction; rather, it was his authoritative, albeit language-hampered performance as Claude Lacombe, in the wonder, instilling 1977, Steven Spielberg-directed sci-fi classic, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". However, even in that enigmatic performance alone, there was an aura of interest and fascination, which shone through...not in the character he played, but in the performer...or rather, the artist himself, the exposition of which could not be denied, nor ignored...

Movie Review: "The Killer 4 Pack" (2014; MVD Visual/SGL Entertainment)

...as an ardent and embraced lover of genre films...especially those produced independently, and on nothing less than a shoestring-budget (...I've found that they tend to try harder, aspiring to be something great, despite their limitations), this viewer...every year, about the May time frame...harbors a desire...a dream...a fantasy, to attend the Festival de Cannes, in France, and exclusively, albeit waywardly partake of the genre film offerings, often featured there. Just wander about the film festival, taking in and 'binge-watching' (...man, don't you just love these social 'terms of the moment') the newest of the new, and some often nostalgically celebrated, as far as the realm of horror and dark fantasy, both big-budgeted and micro-budgeted alike...

...alas, this viewer's own financial limitations have, at least for the time being, curbed any possibility of one day attending the internationally renowned film festival (...understandable, as word has it, the cost of attending the yearly fest, is one of those 'ouch' level of expenses...Yikes!!); still, such obstacles hardly gives cause to cease and desist the dream itself. And as amiable consolation and substitute for what cannot be, but might be, one day...well, there's always the much more compact and convenient venue of home video. Browsing the store shelves...or perhaps more succinctly, the item entries listed over at Amazon or Ebay...one cannot help but express a measure of exhaustion, in filtering though the countless multi-movie collections, out there. Public domain trash, side-by-side with mainstream pairings and couplings. Bargain basement bounty...titles, merging over titles, blurring into more and more titles. It would be so easy to miss the occasional jewel, or jewels amongst all of this generic colored glass...tarnished jewels, to be sure, but jewels, nonetheless...

Movie Review: The Man Who Lies (1968; Kino Lorber/Redemption Films)

...what's that old saying?? Something about a 'tangled web one weaves, when one practices to deceive'? Consider the pathological liar: The tales rendered, often outrageous and dazzling...even manipulative...though with an element of truth, which genuinely supports the fantasique fervor of the story told. Favorable focus on the storyteller...even to the point of 'superhuman' empowerment, or an incredibly sheltered naivete; they are the hero in their tales, or perhaps the hapless, unknowing victim. The surprisingly keen ability to weave a fantastical, seemingly supportive tale, right on the spot, given the clear urgency of the situation...though, that's where that aforementioned 'tangled web' comes into play, when the story becomes so convoluted with falsehood, it begins to fray, and come unraveled. And of course, there's the motive...the 'hanging carrot' clockwork reasoning that drives the recipient listener of the complex and intricate fabrication into potentially believing the manipulative teller of the tale...

...in director Alain Robbe-Grillet's brazenly artful, enigmatic and self-telling 1968 mystery/drama, "The Man Who Lies"...a joint French/Czechoslovakian production...does the film's mysterious and manipulative protagonist, rightly fit the definition, as suggested above?? Or is there method to the ensuing madness, as enigmatically depicted in the following 'tangled web' proceedings??...

Movie Review: "Sheriff of Contention" (2010; Rock Wayne Org./High Frontier Vent./Lionsgate)

...from studio to studio...from distribution company to distribution company...they say that for every great film script, pull out from the endless sea of extensive literary meanderings & cinematic hopefuls, and given it's due, there are at least two dozen or so others...some good, most bad...left to languish, lost and unnoticed. Occasionally, the cinematic powers-that-be, do take a gamble on a forlorn concept...one of those thought lost and discarded scripts, which most have turned their discriminant nose up at...save for that rare and singular moment of unconvention, who keenly eyes a laid-aside script of potential...something which elicits a thought-provoking 'hmmm, that's interesting'. A story interesting enough to warrant engaging, even in the midst of what might be considered muddled thespian in performance, and untried in direction & editing. Such might well have been the case, with the respectably thrilling and intriguing 2010 old-westerner, "Sheriff of Contention", which sat collecting dust on a shelf...that is, until Liongate, of all surprising distributors, recently saw fit to shed an indiscriminate and opportunist spotlight on the little film...to the delight of us devotees of the type of period Wild West melodramas, which in this case, unconventionally assume contemporary conventions, albeit on a forgiveably less-than perfect level of presentation...

...Sheriff Peavy is in the throes of almost overwhelming pressure; the people, whom he serves in the dusty frontier town of Contention City, have expressed a growing loss of faith in his abilities, saying that he is 'used up and burnt out'. The sheriff's gun-happy right hand man, Deputy Conley, has made no secret of his ambitions, in possibly replacing the sheriff, in view of his seemingly diminished stature...and even the town's mayor himself has expressed and encouraged such a prospective changing of hands. And in the midst of such personal turmoil, the sheriff...as well as the townspeople...are horrified and perplexed at a ever-increasing series of heinous and ruthless killings, which have targeted the town's womenfolk...

Movie Review: The Medusa Touch (1978, Hen's Tooth Video)

...the late, great Richard Burton...mentioned in the same breath as this titular webpage...Really?? Come on...really?? That might well be the reactionary consensus of most run-of-the-mill mainstream film fans; however, for those of us devoted cinemaphiles...the loyal disciples of the film fantastique...those who embrace the odd, the strange, the misfit, the unconventional...well, heck, Richard Burton, despite countless revered, praised and respected performances...a classical renaissance actor, to be sure...is hardly out of place, in the cult film genre. "Where Eagles Dare"..."Night of the Iguana"..."Cleopatra"..."Anne of a Thousand Days"...Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"...not to mention, his many grandeur contributions to Shakespeare, both film and stage...really, shall we go on?? However, surprisingly enough, his contributions to cult films, has definitely proven somewhat lacking, as far as the more arcane, sinister and diabolical, in the sense of the more easily dismissed 'junket' type of films, for lack of a better word. Time and time again, one sees and hears of actors, past their prime...still being sought for what might be considered 'less than desireable' roles; and yet, for good or for bad, Richard Burton never really let such a thing restrict himself from taking on roles, which he perhaps might have found interesting, and yet which for the status quo masses, might be considered unusual and wholly unexpected, in assuming...like this quaint and sinister little ditty of a thriller...a melding of the classic 'disaster' movie, with the paranormal...

Movie Review: CZ12: Chinese Zodiac (2012, Emperor Motion Pictures)

...really gotta give mega-action-star Jackie Chan, some serious gumption. After all, look at the dude; at only 59 years of age, still being one of the most youthfully vibrant celebrities, working in martial arts cinema, despite his seasoning...and still doing his own stunts, at his age, no less. The guy is, without a doubt, the 'Mick Jagger' of the martial arts movie genre, in the sense that the death-defying stunts that he does, isn't gonna kill him; it'll be merely the fact that he'll keep tirelessly working in the motion picture field, up until the point that...well, up to the point when he just can't do it, anymore, physically...he's that dedicated. What's so damn cool about that dedication, is that for him, it's not just for the money...it's for the endless, world-wide legion of fans, who he dedicates himself to. As such, this proves a most invariably inarguable point, considering his well-documented, record breaking stuntwork, which has been a better part of his work...as well as the ensuing, equally record-breaking injuries, which he has sustained, in the course of the 40-some-odd years, which he has been performing (...and for those privy to all of Jackie's work, that observation might be emphasized best, in watching the jaw-dropping end-credit outtake footage, in each of his films...a practice, which he was inspired to include at the end of each of his films, after having starred in 1981's "Cannonball Run"...which also included outtake footage, during the end credits). Well, this viewer is here to tell you that despite his reported announcements, Jackie seemingly appears to have no sign of stopping in his tracks and packing it in, as far as offering his fans, the death-defying, action-packed thrills and chills they've come to expect, as evident in his latest cross-country actioner (...yes, he directed this one, too)...a rollicking excursion in comedy, intrigue, mystery and high adventure, called "CZ12: Chinese Zodiac"...

Movie Review: X-Ray/Schizoid (1982/1980, Cannon/Shout Factory)

Oh, how delightfully crazed and eclectically varied, was the cinematic reign once held by 'the little studio that could', The Cannon Group. From production to distribution...from relentless vigilantes to shuriken-welding ninjas...from fantastic fantasy-filled adventures to special effects-filled sci-fi spectaculars...from psycho killers to break-dancing 'boogaloos'...from sleazy big-studio knock-offs to Academy Award-winning respectables...Cannon Films...ambitiously led by the exploitatively entrepreneur-driven efforts of Menahem Golen and Yoram Globus...managed to hold their own quite well against the 'big boys' of Hollywood...their inception, their brief, albeit respectable studio run, their eventual downfall...all components in a most intriguing story, which in itself, would make for quite an interesting tale to tell (...and actually WILL, when the long-awaited documentary, "Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films", is unleashed upon the public, sometime next year). And how equally delightful is the relevation that the fine folks at Shout Factory, has picked up a good number of titles from the Cannon Group library...culled from their direct film production efforts, to those of outer circle production sources...domestic and international...which, in their exploitatively idyllic wisdom, chose to represent and distribute. Never one to ignore a 'flavor-of-the-moment' movie trend, Cannon was, of course, quick to ride the late '70's/mid-to-late '80's 'splatter movie' bandwagon, with some of their own visceral & juicy productions and acquisitions...

Movie Review: The Initiation (1984, New World/Arrow Video)

 ...alright, folks!! Let's see a raise of hands out there, whose partial joy of one's bygone high school years, was spent hanging out with friends, at the local shopping mall. With a hand elatedly raised high, yes, this viewer most assuredly engaged in this adolescent ritual...a demandant after-school prerequisite...a cartel of your best buds, or on some nights, just your best gal...a mass invasion of the food court...checking out the record stores and game shops...emptying a pocketful of quarters, obliterating asteroids, saving monkey-enslaved princesses and chomping on ghost-guarded power pills, at the arcade...and seeing the latest blood-spattered horror flickage at the multiplex. In a time when one's first taste of splattery cinema was the one-two-three punch of the original "Halloween", "Dawn of the Dead" & "Friday the 13th", and the onslaught of horror films to come, was just short of emphasizing a preponderance of holiday-based horrors (...jeez, didn't any holiday miss the ravages of horror filmmakers?? Oh wait...hey, how about that?? Arbor Day wasn't touched...horror filmmakers, take note), the idealist possibility of horrible horrors at a shopping mall weren't fully and wholly considered (...even after the siege of Romero zombies), especially after the more reflectively exuberant fun of hanging out at the mall was joyously upheld, with a certain little comedy ditty, in and the about the area of fictional Ridgemont High. That all changed, in the excellent '80's, when even a wayward and nocturnally covert jaunt at a shopping mall or department store proved to be quite horrific...even deadly, in notables like 1984's "Night of the Comet", 1986's "Chopping Mall", 1988's "Hide and Go Shriek", 1987's "The Outing" (...oh, OK...that was a museum, not a mall), as well as a quaint and underappreciated little whodunit slasher entry from 1984, entitled "The Initiation"...

Movie Review: Federal Agents vs. Underworld, Inc. (1949, Republic/Cheezy Flicks)

...ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls...return with us, once again, to the thrilling golden days of yesteryear, when sandwiched in between each and every classic double-feature bill, yet another grueling and suspense-instilling serial chapter...gripping the audience with anticipation, and gasp-inducing thrills & chills. During that exciting time, famed Republic Pictures held a pretty respectable gamut, in the genre of multi-chaptered cliffhangers, with the best of them amongst the lot, including 1939's "Zorro's Fighting Legion", 1936's "Undersea Kingdom", 1946's "The Crimson Ghost", 1950's "Desperadoes of the West" (...covered earlier, on this webpage), 1949's "King of the Rocket Men", 1945's "The Purple Monster Strikes", and several others. For the most part, known for being quite fast-paced, as well as being crammed with as much easily-digestible story into each chapter, the Republic serials very much stood out amongst their peers, which included the likes of Universal Pictures, Pathe Exchange, Columbia Pictures, Astra Films and Mascot Pictures, just to name a few. And it was gripping and action-packed entries, such as 1949's "Federal Agents vs. Underworld, Inc...one of Republic's latter-end serials...which firmly cemented their reputation, as far as their respected and well-received contribution to this genre...

Movie Review: A Haunting at Silver Falls (2013, Outsider Pictures)

...ya' know, one really has to wonder, just what is it about lingeringly restless and supposedly 'wronged' ghosts & specters...in particular, those of the cinematic fervor...and their ethereal and other-worldly stasis, forcibly tethered in this world...a torturous limbo...still managing to take with them, a wholly human, demandantly unswerving, relentlessly unforgiving and self-serving sense of justice and purpose?? Supposed 'unfinished business', as often coined...hauntingly insistent upon commanding the attention of the living, despite their limited and handicapped ability to fully communicate, and yet able to exude frustration, anger, rage and fury...sometimes physically...when those whom they are haunting, just can't seem to get the message, right from the get-go. And what about those haplessly haunted...forced to delve into uncertain mystery and intrigue...sometimes getting in way over their heads...in an effort to appease the haunting spirit, invariably plaguing them...

...come on, 'dead' people (...clap, clap); wake up and smell the afterlife...Let's get on with it, huh!!

Movie Review: Love Me (2012, Anchor Bay)

(...referring to the characters in this movie) People!! Get out of the darkness...get out, and get some sun, PLEASE!!! Granted, this viewer hasn't been regularly privy to youthful, school-entrenched teen movies, since the colorful, albeit angst-filled days of the '80's; however, at least things were relatively bright & vividly lit back then, and the ones that favored the dark motif...dark clothes, dark rooms, dark attitudes...were relegatedly monikered the outcasts, the misfits. Perhaps it's merely the matter of this viewer having gotten way too old, but if actual teen life today is anything close to being as style-reflective, as in the derivitively slick and quaint little 2012 mystery/thriller, "Love Me", then I suppose that the younger generation these days has, for the most part, expressively and outwardly embraced the darkness within themselves, and what was once considered 'outcast' and 'misfit', is now the standard.

That been said, shall we shift gears, and examine an unchanging constant, no matter what generation is focused upon...an unswervingly steadfast constant, being that of 'true love'?? Ah, yes...true love. Two people finding that certain perfect chemistry...that certain, instinctive, unexplainable, plus-to-minus attraction, which inexplicably and compellingly carries them off to an indescribably intangible level, that's indelibly euphoric, when it happens...or rather, when it is resignedly let to happen. Life's classic unsolveable riddle, wrapped in a mystery, shrouded in enigma. And yet, tortuously conflicting and repellant, yet strangely and irresistibly alluring, when an element of mystery...of darkness...nay, even of danger, is introduced. In the case of "Love Me", we're talking deeply entrenched shades of deception...and murder...

Movie Review: Mr. Bricks: A Heavy Metal Murder Musical (2011)

Directed by Travis Campbell

Starring Tim Dax, Nicole Fiore and Vito Trigo

After screwing his wanna-be girlfriend Scarlette (Nicole Fiore) on a mattress in an abandoned warehouse, Mr. Bricks (Tim Dax) is shot in the head and left for dead by an assassin. When he awakens he finds Scarlette is gone and thus begins a search for her. Along the way he occasionally breaks into rage-filled song when he is not beating people over the head with a brick.

Movie Review: Shutter Island (2010)

The trailer for Shutter Island had my interest immediately. It seemed like a crazy thriller full of twists. A few people that I knew saw it, and I heard mixed reactions. Some of them complained about the ending. I didn't care. I still wanted to see it. I never got out to the theater, and somehow I managed to avoid any spoilers. I had even forgotten about it until I saw it streaming on Netflix. Oh, glorious Netflix. I had to watch it right away. I had high hopes for this movie, and I was not let down.

Buy Shutter Island [Blu-ray] or DVD

From the start, Shutter Island is unnerving. Just the look on DiCaprio's face is enough to give you the wiggly shits. The soundtrack is intense, and it ramps up at just the right moments. It's not like Scorcese hasn't done this before, but even the greats can slip. Not here. The cast is great too. Ted Levine and John Carroll Lynch are great as the wardens. Add Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow as the lead psychiatrists. Then there's Mark Ruffalo, who I've never actually seen in anything before. The guy was really good, and it makes me look forward to seeing him in gamma radiation green.