He's A Bad Mother...

SHAFT-1971-This kind of relic from the '70's is in a way the ultimate "black exploitation" film. In most movies the lead character has trouble with a racist individual or racism in general but here John Shaft "the private dick who's a sex machine for all the chicks" really has nothing but disdain for white people. In the mostly actionless plot Shaft (Richard Roundtree) refuses to help a white police captain fight crime but takes the case of finding the daughter of a ruthless Harlem gangster named Bumpy (Moses Gunn) kidnapped by the Mafia. He enlists some black militant drug dealers to assist him. He has sex with his girlfriend but when she says "I love you" to him over the phone he just replies "Yeah, I know" and hangs up and later has sex with a white prostitute. In the climax he leads the gang (dressed up like cooks, janitors and bellhops) in an assault on the building where the mob is holding the daughter. After the rescue and some fighting, Shaft just laughs as the police have to deal with the mess he's made.

Shaft acts cool and tough but there's too much talk. Perhaps Life magazine photographer turned director Gordon Parks wasn't sure which way to take the story: serious cultural drama or action packed crime drama. The best part to me was the on location scenes of NYC in the early '70's (especially the 42nd Street area).

 Author Ernest Tidyman (THE FRENCH CONNECTION) wrote the screenplay based on his novel. SHAFT spawned two sequels and a short lived TV series. The Isaac Hayes soundtrack won an Academy Award.

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Not A Remake!

MIMESIS-2011-Several people are invited to a party where they are drugged. They wake up to find themselves dressed like characters in the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and later all take refuge in a replica of the farmhouse and are terrorized by zombies. All the characters have the first names of the real cast of the George Romero classic (i.e.: Duane, Judith, Russell, Karl) and there's some gory scenes. For the most part it's pretty good (though not really scary) but toward the end it almost turns into another SAW influenced torture film. Fortunately it's saved by a good climax. Sid Hiag has a good but small role as a former horror director who speaks at a horror convention and later figures in the outlandish plot.

Director Douglas Schulze made this a few years after DARK FIELDS.

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More Found Footage

GRAVE ENCOUNTERS-2011-This Canadian production is influenced heavily by THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT but I was actually surprised by a couple of scenes. It's told through the video cameras of a film crew doing a segment of a reality TV show called "Grave Encounters" who go to an abandon mental hospital to film an episode. The host of the show Lance Preston (Sean Rogerson) only interested in a TV contract is accompanied by several camera people and a phony psychic. After they interview some locals the group has themselves locked up in the asylum over night. At first they only hear noises but a few things happen that they don't notice. Later they become trapped in the place and one by one everyone starts to disappear. They actually do meet up with some real ghouls and eventually it turns out a mad doctor who was killed years before is still doing lobotomies (and maybe devil worshiping) in the basement. It's well done (with some gory SFX) but the ending goes on too long.

It was written, produced and directed by two guys who go by the name of "The Vicious Brothers". They wrote and produced a sequel in 2012.

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In The Shadows

SHADOW PEOPLE-2011-This supernatural thriller is presented as a partial pseudo-documentary using fake interviews, You Tube posts and excerpts from a real documentary called YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE.

A loser late night radio DJ Charlie Crowe (Dallas Roberts) investigates reports of people dying in their sleep. A CDC scientist (Alison Eastwood) says they are related to the real life "Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome" that affected Hmong refugees in the US in the 1980's. But Crowe comes to believe that "shadow people", mysterious dark figures who kill victims in their sleep, are responsible. This is mostly talking and quick editing using "found footage" and really nothing happens. Director Matthew Arnold later created a TV series called SIBERIA.

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I Got Sea Sick

SEA BEAST-2008- The skipper of a fishing boat (Corin Nemec) teams with a female biologist (Camille Sullivan) to battle a strange sea creature that paralyzes its victims then eats them alive. Meanwhile his daughter (Miriam McDonald) and his first mate (Daniel Wisler) are terrorized by the creatures' babies on a nearby island. The obviously CGI created monsters have very long tongues and there's some graphic violence but a mundane and derivative movie like this always poses the question "why was this made at all?".

Director Paul Ziller has been around for a while (BACK IN ACTION, SNAKEHEAD TERROR) so you'd think he's know better!

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More Like A Circle

TRIANGLE-A woman named Jess (Melissa George from 30 DAYS OF NIGHT) with a special needs child goes on a boating trip (without her son) with her boyfriend and some of his friends. They hit a freak storm and the boat is capsized. Luckily a big cruise ship comes to their rescue and they board it. Unluckily it seems to be deserted although a mysterious figure is quickly seen twice. They search the ship (with Jess having feelings of deja vu) but all they can find is the message "go to the theater" written in blood on a mirror. After Jess is attacked by one of the guys, she escapes and meets another couple in the theater where a masked assassin shoots at them from the balcony. The couple is killed but Jess gets out. Later she confronts the killer with an ax. Just before falling over the side, the killer mumbles something about "killing everyone".

Quick movie, huh? Not so fast. The rest of this annoyingly dumb British production borrows ideas from David Lynch's LOST HIGHWAY, MEMENTO and even the low-budget 1960's SF cheapie JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TIME. Director Christopher Smith made several horror movies after this. (You've been warned)

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60's Western

HOSTILE GUNS-1967-This AC Lyles production features George Montgomery as US Marshall Gid McCool who transports convicted criminals to the state pen. He needs a deputy but can find no one willing so he "recruits" bad boy Mike Reno (Tab Hunter). Their first prisoner is Hank Pleasant (Leo Gordon) on his way to the gallows for killing a child. They later pick up a corrupt railroad official (Robert Emhardt) and a goat thief (Pedro Gonzales-Gonzales who croons a tune). Their fourth pick up is Laura Mannon (Yvonne DeCarlo), who shot her boyfriend. Laura (she and McCool had once been lovers) manages to come between the duo which leads to them fighting and almost being killed by Pleasant's brother (John Russell) and other family members.

This low budget western has lots of witty dialogue and a great cast which also includes smaller roles with Brian Donlevy, Richard Arlen, James Craig, Fuzzy Knight, William Fawcett, Emile Meyer and Don Barry. It was directed by RG Sprignsteen, a veteran of Westerns since the late forties but by this time (not untypically) he had done a lot of TV. Unfortunately the low budget shows through several times especially with camera crew lights reflecting off the scenery at times!

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