Away We Go (2009)

Title: Away We Go (2009)



Director: Sam Mendes


Review:

Sam Mendes’s American Beauty is one of my favorite movies ever. I love how it puts the suburban american family on the spotlight during those moments in life when a couple can get bored with their relationship and forget to keep things interesting, forget about that first love that got things started. The direction is spot on, and the dialog witty and fresh. In his new film Away We Go, Mendes explores the other side of the spectrum, the couple thats just getting started in life, and how they try and find the best way to start down that long path. Sam Mendes usually directs dark films, with serious subject matter and themes. Films like Jarhead, which deals with the woes of going to war, Road to Perdition, a gangster film. All dark films, but, it seems Mendes wanted a break from all the gloom and doom and decided to do a light film. A film where not a whole lot goes wrong.

Story is about a young couple, Burt and Veronna. One day while they are sitting on their couch in the middle of the freezing winter in their humble little home, they suddenly start wondering if they are "fuck ups” because they dont have their own home. They are in their 30s and they haven’t done a whole lot with their lives. They don’t have their own place, and well, things aint going all that well in the money department. The sudden change in perspective comes when they learn that Veronna is pregnant. Now they realize that life isn’t just about them anymore, they have an extra little human along the way, and they gotta take care of it. So off they go in search of the best place in which they can raise their child. Their big plan is to go and visit a lot of their friends, and see which place is the best for them to settle in.

The thing with this movie is that Burt and Veronna are constantly on the move, from state to state searching for the best place in which to raise their child. And with every place they go to, we get to meet a new friend of theirs. Everyone is different, every one of them has children of their own, and they all raise their children in different ways. So this is what the film is trying to show us, how different people raise kids differently, and basically, with every couple we’re supposed to learn what not to do while raising a family.

The movie stars John Strasinsky as Burt, most of you probably know Strasinsky from The Office, where he plays Jim. In Away We Go he plays more or less the same character, but with a beard. You know, the nice guy, doesnt fight, doesnt yell, treats his lady well, with love and respect. Maya Rudolph plays down her comedic side from her days on Saturday Night Live to atone with the movies ultra mellow vibe.

Cool thing is that with every family we meet, we get a different set of actors. First we get to meet Burts parents, played by Catherine O Hara and Jeff Daniels, and basically, we learn not to be selfish assholes who only care about themselves and their fun retirement plans and not about their son, who is just about to have a kid of their own and his gonna need that extra help once the baby is born. Then we get to meet a couple who are foul mouth in front of their kids and have absolutely no connection with them whatsoever. We get to meet Maggie Gyllenhal and Josh Hamilton who are these ultra hippy parents, who are so new age, they don’t know how to connect with OUR age, so they raise their kids to live in an unreal reality. And so on, we keep meeting a couple more of their friends until they finally make their decision.

It’s a nice little film, very light. We get some nice chemistry between Maya Rudolph and John Krasinsky. What I never got about the movie was, if they are supposedly so poor, how come they have so much money to travel from state to state? They are supposed to be so troubled, but they sure don’t look it. They got money to pay for plane tickets and rent cars and hotel rooms, werent these kids supposed to be "fuck ups"? It really didnt feel as if they were in that bad of a situation. Krasinky and Rudolph are very likable characters, they play the ultra normal couple who truly love each other and want to live a normal live in the middle of this crazy world, good idea if you ask me. Still, some might feel as if Burt and Veronna are two self righteous individuals who cant accept others for who they are. So basically, they go through the whole movie saying “lets not do that! Those people are crazy!” And running away to the next ‘crazy’ family. Thing is, were all kind of crazy, and we all raise kids however we think is right, what might be crazy to one individual, might be completely okay with the other and so forth. So some people might get that vibe. But I guess these characters are striving to be as “normal” and good as possible. They don’t yell, they don’t fight, they even have to make believe they are fighting cause they are so good to each other! Which is a good model to follow I guess. Not a bad movie to watch if your in those crossroads from being a twenty something, to being a thirty something and contemplating having kids.

Rating: 3 ½ out of 5

The Driller Killer (1979)

Title: The Driller Killer (1979)

Director: Abel Ferrara

Review:

Abel Ferrara has always been and apparently will always be an underground filmmaker. His films get wide recognition amongst film critics and movie buffs, but they are never big commercial films. His themes are always way too controversial to go big, yet he continues making them. I have to respect that about the guy, he continues making his films no matter what. He is the true definition of what an independent filmmaker should be. He makes the movies he wants to make, nothing stops him. He is responsible for some of the most shocking films that this Film Connoisseur has ever seen. Films like The Bad Lieutenant or King of New York felt like somebody threw a bucket of ice down my back when I saw them for the first time. He gets down to the nitty gritty of things, the dark side of human nature. The greedy, selfish side. The side without any moral values. The film I will be reviewing today is where this gifted filmmaker got started. Oddly enough, it’s a gore fest! A slasher!

The Driller Killer tells the story of Reno Miller (played by Abel Ferrara himself) a struggling artist living in New York City. Reno lives off his girlfriend who has to pay the rent month after month because Reno just isn’t bringing in the cash with his art. The phone bill is ever escalating because Reno’s two girlfriends (that’s right they live as a threesome) make long distance phone calls like there’s no tomorrow. Reno’s girl friend is constantly doubting his work, his manager isn’t helping matters any either. Reno’s salvation comes if he manages to sell the painting he is currently working on. Will all his financial and psychological woes get to Reno? How much more of this will he take before he completely snaps?

So the first thing I thought of when I saw The Driller Killer was how similar it is to American Psycho. Don’t know if Bret Easton Ellis was inspired somehow by The Driller Killer, but wow, the similarities are numerous. Let’s see, a guy is pissed with society, so he goes out on a killing spree eliminating whoever he thinks is detrimental somehow to society, including -but not limited to- the homeless, homosexuals, drunkards, drug addicts and evil bosses. There is one scene in particular in which Reno walks up to a homeless person and begins to ask him why he is there, why he isn’t looking for a job or why he isn’t at home with his wife. There’s a scene exactly like that one in American Psycho! The main character slowly dives into the deepest levels of insanity, until by the end of the movie he is a full blast psychotic killer, just like in American Psycho. So the similarities between these two movies are too obvious to ignore.

What I enjoyed the most about this movie was how grimy it looks and feels. Ferrara has always been a director infatuated with the city of New York. While directors like Woody Allen showcase the upper high class of New York, Ferrara has always gone the other way. He always focuses on the scum, the low lives, the criminals, in this way commenting on the realities New York was living in during those times. The main character in the movie is a struggling actor on the border of insanity, living with two women at the same time. He lives in the most poverty stricken parts of New York. This movie is so grimy, it feels like something Frank Henenlotter (Brain Damage, Basket Case) might have cooked up. Reno’s living conditions aren’t the best, he has a punk band as neighbors, he lives with a junky. Its no wonder the guy goes insane!

It’s certainly interesting to see where a fine director like Abel Ferrara started at. The film does have a few short comings on the technical department, but I think these faults actually go with the type of story that Ferrara is telling. It feels more real somehow, like a documentary of these suffering individuals. Had the film had elevated production values; maybe it would not have been the same kind of experience. As it stands, the film has a certain rawness to it, a certain electricity that only a hungry director looking to call attention onto himself can conjure up. This film does have its fare share of violence and blood. But it is not as gory as one might think. This film was banned both in Germany and England because it was deemed “too violent”. In reality, most of the gore happens off screen. The movie only has one truly gory moment, which unfortunately they decided to use as the cover for the VHS release of the film. This is probably the one and only reason why this film was banned and considered a “video nasty” in England. But that notoriety it got by being on this list of films deemed to violent, is probably what helped the movie survive through all these years.

This is the cover for the VHS release that got this film banned

The film in my opinion is worth checking out for various reasons. One of the main reasons is because the film is an excellent character study of a psychotic mind. It is very similar thematically and aesthetically to films like William Lustig’s Maniac (1980), Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) and as I mentioned earlier, American Psycho. It also has similarities with Falling Down (1993), with its attacks on society. At its core though, its a film about a guy who is afraid to end up a homeless person, like his father before him. That fear of being so close to being out on the streets, just like any other bum, plus the frustrations of living in a society that doesnt allow him to survive, push Reno to the limits. It’s also interesting to see where Abel Ferrara got started before going on to bigger things, and even more interesting to see him acting as the main character on his own film. A word of warning though: the film does appear to be edited; some scenes are completely blacked out, especially towards the ending. I’m not sure if there’s an unedited version of this movie out there. Also worthy of mentioning is that the DVD has a director’s commentary. Most of the time, these commentaries include the director commenting on his film, saying as many positive things about it as he can, but not on this commentary! On this audio commentary Abel Ferrara appears to be completely wasted while giving it! Its funny to hear him criticizing the film like crazy, he is his own worst critic. But good luck trying to understand or make sense of some of the things Ferrara says on the commentary. He appears to be almost as high as some of the actors on the film were.

Rating: 3 ½ out of 5

Vampire Circus (1972)

Title: Vampire Circus (1972)


Director: Robert Young


Cast: Adrienne Corri, Thorley Walters, Anthony Higgins


Review:

Vampire Circus is one of those hard to find, elusive Hammer flicks (like Twins of Evil!) that have not yet been oficially released on DVD in the United States. You either find a bootleg of it like I did, or you simply get some foreign release of it and play it on a region free player. Either way, going to some lenghts to get to finally see this one is well worth it. Hammers Studios was on its last legs, yet this did not mean that they were making crappy movies. I find it so strange that many of the last films they made turned out to be the most rewarding films in their whole collection of films! Its a bit obvious that Hammer Studios knew that they had to infuse their films with more of an edge, cause the times, they were a changing. So they added more blood, sex and nudity then any of their previous films. At the same time, these films had faster pace and more sadistic and evil villains. As a result, these last batch of Hammer films turned out to be some of the most offbeat and entertaining of all Hammer films.

In Vampire Circus, the town of Ketl has decided to storm Count Mitterhouse's castle because he is a vampire who has been feeding on the towns young women and children. They decide to take justice into their own hands and rid their town and the rest of the world of Count Mitterhouse. Unfortunately for them, just before he dies Count Mitterhouse sends a curse upon the small town, warning them that the town is going to die and that their children were going to die. Fast forward a couple of decades, and its all coming true. The town is dying of a deadly plague that has spread across the land, town morale is low. Suddenly, amongst all the sadness and death, a curious traveling circus stumbles into town! The circus is called "The Circus of Nights". Suddenly, the people of the town have something to entertain themselves. The Circus of Nights is here to take their minds of all the sadness and depression. They dont have to be so sad anymore! Unfortunately, theres a dark secret that comes along with this mysterious traveling circus. What could it be? Oh yeah, everyone in the circus is a bloodsucker! Will the people of the town realize this before its too late? And exactly why is this circus in town, besides feeding?

Theres a couple of horror films out there that revolve around the strangeness and surrealism that hovers around the circus atmosphere. Tobe Hoopers Funhouse comes to mind. Usually, in movies of this type, the circus performers take center stage. This is the case with Vampire Circus where all the vampires in the circus got something that makes them special, the villains are the main stars and are by far, more interesting then the villagers. For example, we have the man who can mysteriously transform into a puma! We got the twins who turn into bats! We have the "mirror of life" where if you look into it, you can see what the future has in store for you! We have midget clowns! In other words, we have a whole assortment of freaks. All of whom look forward to entertain you, only so the can suck your blood afterwards! But in reality, all this elements put together, makes for one of Hammers strangest movies. A circus of horror!

The main villain in this movie, Count Mitterhouse is one of the most viscious vampires in all of Hammers films! In the first ten minutes of the movie, he has already killed a little girl! Before he dies, he curses the whole town! So be on the look out for a mean viscious and cruel vampire. In fact, all the vampires in this film are more evil then usual, they love feeding on the blood of children! By the way, its no secret that the villain has to die at the end of a Hammer movie. I always find it funny how once the villain dies, the movie is instantly over! The End, credits roll. When Count Mitterhouse bites it, its in a very original way, not gonna spoil it for you guys, but its memorable. Never seen that happen in a vampire movie before. Ditto for a vampire who transforms into a puma.

Thats one other thing about this movie, it plays around a lot with vampire lore. Who the hell heard of a vampire who turns into a puma? Or a vampire that needs the blood of various victims to be poured over his dead carcass so he can be resurrected? Or have you ever head of a vampire who can put a curse upon a whole town? Thats the cool thing about these Hammer vampire films, some of them exists outside of the whole Dracula mythology. So they can do whatever the hell they want with vampire lore and nobody can tell them otherwise. I guess it just adds to the bizarre feeling this movie has. The only bad thing I can say about this movie is its main protagonist was a poor choice for a hero, he was too much the pretty boy, with not enough ass kicking virtue in him. He didnt convince me as a guy who would go out there and kick Count Mitterhouse's vampire ass.

So, in conclusion. Vampire Circus it a film that was fun because its weird freaky carnival feel and its despicable villains. Too bad this film is often times ignored and doesnt get the recognition it deserves. Why has this gem of a vampire movie been left out in the cold? Its been completely ignored! And its so damn entertaining! It certainly is one of the most unique vampire films to come out of Hammers House of Horror, and one that any Vampire/Hammer lover should not miss.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Twins of Evil (1971)

Title: Twins of Evil (1971)

Director: Jhon Hough

Cast: Peter Cushing, Dennis Price, Mary and Madeline Collinson, Damien Thomas

Review:

This Hammer film had managed to elude me for sometime because unfortunately, its NOT on DVD yet! For some unholy reason some studio head somewhere has not done his homework, and as a result, we still dont have a proper DVD release. But thanks to a buddy of mine I finally got a bootleg copy of it. So I finally I got to get a look at Twins of Evil. And Ill be damned if it wasnt one of the coolest vampire flicks Hammer Studios ever produced!

This is the third film in Hammer films "Karnstein" trilogy. This trilogy consisted of The Vampire Lovers, was followed by Lust for a Vampire and ended with the film I will be reviewing today, Twins of Evil. They all deal with the Karnstein family as the vampiric threat in their stories. On this one we get Count Kernstein, a young bachelor who lives on a castle at the top of a hill, as is usually the case with villains in Hammer films. Everyone in town knows he is into witchcraft and devil worship, and they are right. It's all true. This count is really into worshipping Satan! Black Masses! Human sacrifices! Anyhows, Count Karnstein grows bored with charlatans and fakers claiming to be true devil worshipers. So on a desperate attempt to really get things moving, Count Kernstein decides to summon old Beelzebub himself into his home by sacraficing a virgin! This makes for a fantastic scene if there ever was one! The scene reeks of satanic blasphemy! The virgins blood doesnt make Satan show up...but it does awaken the corpse of Mircalla Karnstein! An old vampire vixen who's laid dormant for years! When Mircalle wakes up, she in turn transforms the young Count into a vampire. Shortly after that, two innocent yet mischievous twin sisters decide to wonder into the castle...will they fall for Count Kernsteins charms? Will these twin sisters be turned to the dark side to worship the devil?

The first film in the Karnstein trilogy was Vampire Lovers wich starred Ingrid Pitt as Countess Mircalla Karnstein. And even though the beautiful Ingrid Pitt, who wows us in Vampire Lovers does not reprise her role in this sequel, Twins of Evil is an excellent example of what a really great Hammer vampire film should be like. A great story, great atmosphere, lots of blood and lots of nudity. Oh and lets not forget the girl on girl action. Lust for a Vampire, the second entry in Hammers Karnstein trilogy I have yet to see, so I cant comment much on that one. But from what I hear, its one of the weakest in the trilogy. But with Twins of Evil Hammer studios out did themselves once again, as if they were trying to compensate for making a weak film with Lust for a Vampire. As I watched Twins of Evil, I couldnt believe how good this movie was turning out to be and I realized what a crime it is that its not yet available on DVD. Last info I discovered about this getting a U.S. DVD release, Fox bought off most of MGM's library (cause MGM is actually going bankrupt if you can believe it!) and well, it looks like this films DVD release is still very much uncertain, at least in the U.S.

One is the good sister, the other is the bad.

I was surprised to see that this film, had non of the usual Hammer directors, writers or producers. Theres no Terrence Fisher or Freddy Francis, or Roy Ward Baker directing...no John Elder writing the script. It was weird not to see any familiar names (save for Peter Cushing) being involved on this Hammer production. Maybe thats why this film feels like a breath of fresh air in certain occasions. Though this still is a Hammer film and we do get a lot of traditional Hammer situations...this one did things just a little more intensely. Its a very viscious film for a Hammer film, with a slightly edgier tone to it. More graphic, more satanic. Which of course in my opinion makes for a better film. This film in particular was directed by John Hough, who would go on to direct the excellent Legend of Hell House. He was also responsible for a horror film called Incubus (1982). He also made the Witch Mountain movies and the haunted house film The Watcher in the Woods (1980) for Disney Pictures. He also directed Howling IV: The Original Nightmare. But we dont need to get into that.

One of the things that stood out for me on this film was the sets. Usually on a Hammer film the sets will seem familiar some how, because many times they just reused sets used on previous films. On this one, the sets had a very unique look to them. Specially Count Kernsteins castle. That castle looked great on the inside! Its got a lot of skulls, Gargoyles and statues with horns coming out of them, it just made everything all the more gothic. Also the way the interior of the castle was lit, helped everything look all the more spookier. They later reused these sets for filming Vampire Circus.

The comes the acting. Peter Cushing is known for elevating Hammer films with his acting, in this film, his character is one Gustav Weil, witch killer! Cushing plays a priest, hunting down witches and warlocks and burning them at the stake! Part of that whole inquisition deal where a lot of innocent people were burned at the stake and tortured if they werent catholics. Cushing plays the witchfinder, his character in Twins of Evil is very similar to that of Vincent Price's in Cry of the Banshee or The Conqueror Worm, constantly looking for witches to burn. Great thing about this character is that apart from Cushings great performance, he is a very ambiguous character. He is often times seen as the villain of the film because of his habit of burning beautiful girls in account of religious fanatism. But at the same time he is seen as the heroe who is after Count Kernstein. So theres a duality to his role on this one. A detail that might have added to the somberness of Cushings character is the fact that his wife had very recently died right before he began production of this film, so during the filming of Twins of Evil, Peter Cushing was an actor in pain.

Still, I like how the film explores these themes, of how at one time people were burned if they werent catholics. Shinning a light on those dark times when you had to be a catholic, or else you were in cahoots with Satan! There is a scene that I really loved where Peter Cushings withfinder character almost burns a completely innocent person, and realizes it just before they burn the person alive! In this way, the film comments on how this sort of thing happened during those dark days of the inquisition.

As for the titular twins, well they do a good job of looking sexy as heck. These two actresses actually appeared in a 1970s issue of playboy! This film was actually marketed as a new X rated horror film from Hammer Studios! The sisters reveal their respective cleavages more then once during the film. Though nudity was not common in Hammer films of the past, after they did their first use of it in Vampire Lovers, nudity was common in Hammer films. I liked how one sister was the good girl, while the other was the rebelious one, looking to get into trouble all the time. I found it interesting how the "evil" twin was actually lured into the dark side because of how she hated her religious fanatic uncle. In a way, religious fanatism made her run into the clutches of something even more evil. Interesting situation they present us with there. The rebellious sister runs right into the vampires arms! Then she has to deal with the ambiguous nature of being a vampire, and trying not feed on her own sister! Kind of like the same situation we saw a couple years later in Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys.

 Burning innocents was something catholics enjoyed doing during those days.

Another thing I really enjoyed about this film was its fast pace. Lets face it sometimes Hammer films can get a little slow...specially the earlier ones. But this film comes to us from a new school of Hammer directors and writers, who moved their story telling at a faster pace. The ending is a rollercoaster ride of thrills when compared to other Hammer films. Another cool little tidbit about this film: the vampires have huuge fangs! When they reveal their vampire fangs its awesome. Kind of reminded me of the vampires in Vampire Circus. So what we got here is actually a Hammer vampire film that comes from a new generation of Hammer directors, striving to move things quicker, and striving to give their films a new edge.

In conclusion, I can say that this film quickly became one of my favorite Hammer vampire films. Its right up there with the best Hammer films. Im surprised to see that most of my favorite Hammer vampire films ended up being the most offbeat ones! Or the ones that have not yet made it to DVD. I love these flicks because they are films that were made many years after Hammer had already firmly established itself as a horror studio, so these last films learned from the mistakes of all the previous Hammer efforts. Hence the faster plots, abundant nudity and blood. Try to get your hands on this flick if you get a chance, its well worth the effort!

Rating: 5 out of 5

Mad Max 4 Fury Road is lifting off!

Check out this video of George Miller talking all about Mad Max 4 and how its going to take about a year to make all the vehicles in the film! Also, you get to actually look at one of the vehicles that will be appearing! Im excited as hell to know that finally, a new Mad Max film is getting made! And with series creator/director George Miller directing!