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charliecbc
Reviews
The Road (2009)
Christian Propaganda Masquerading as a Real Film!!
This is someone's $100 million dollar Sunday school project. It is a preachy evangelical Christian film about the apocalypse and fire and brimstone. I was seriously disappointed in this movie because the previews made it look like something it was not. The movie would have worked as a short film, maybe a 20 minute long DVD extra on someone else's movie. There were some cool cinematic shots of the barren landscape, but other than that it was 100 minutes of slooooowww and DEPRESSING nothingness, with almost no plot, no likable characters, no action, nothing. Dude it just sucked. I've had it up to my neck with these preachy right-wing evangelists infiltrating the mainstream media. These christians do nothing but take advantage of people. I think these people almost want the apocalypse to happen. Believe me, if the nuclear holocaust does happen, it will definitely be some right-wing Christian that pushed the button. My fellow Americans, do not watch this movie, and if you do, please don't take it seriously, and certainly don't go around thinking the apocalypse is coming. God, these idiots. If the apocalypse does happen, hopefully the churches won't survive.
The Sleeping Car (1990)
Totally Awesome 80s cheese
This movie is a nice little lost gem of an 80s horror comedy. The guy from An American Werewolf in London moves into a railroad sleeping car that has been converted into a small duplex house. He starts dating the girl from Friday the 13th part 4 while goes to college and is taught journalism by a hyper active, smart ass college professor who looks younger than him. The sleeping car he lives in is haunted by the evil ghost of a guy involved in a train wreck. The spirit kills people using telekinesis in some creative and gory ways. Its' favorite method is to have the bed springs come out of the mattress and mutilate the victim. Basically this a well paced, light-hearted haunted house (haunted sleeping car converted into a house, actually) movie with some gore and nudity thrown in for good measure, and it's actually pretty funny. I really liked this movie and it's a shame it is so hard to find and has never been released on DVD.
Bone Sickness (2004)
They DEFINITELY had the right idea!
Finally, some amateurish shot-on-video filmmakers got the right idea! If you can't make a good movie, then pile on the gore! If this film had a bigger budget it would have been amazing. The zombie gore is extreme. It looks pretty fake at times, but the murder and dismemberment they depict with it is imaginative and funny in a trashy way.
While the film itself is extremely amateur, I must say it's the thought that counts. It's a very ambitious take on the no-budget zombie movie genre. While it's not as good the more well known shot on video films like The Dead Next Door, Street Trash, or Slime City, it's still a lot better than Ghoul School, Night of the Living Dead 3-D, or Days of Darkness. The filmmaker really had the right ideas here. Blood spurts everywhere, people vomit worms, numerous people are torn in half, entrails or are eaten, heads broken open, etc.
The extreme stuff doesn't really start up until the one hour mark, but after that it's relentless. There's a lot of nudity too. Pretty much every female character gets naked at some point. Some of the acting sucks. But just sit tight and your patience is rewarded.
If the film had a bigger budget that allowed really professional looking special effects, this would have been the best gore film of the decade. I really hope the filmmakers are able to make more films that get better funding. I think if they got the proper equipment, a half decent budget, and some help from the right people, we might have the next Dead Alive on our hands.
Incident at Raven's Gate (1988)
I loved it. But why?
I'm not sure what to make of this film, or who to recommend it to. All I can say is I liked it, it was amazingly well made, and it definitely held my interest throughout the duration of its run time.
Visually, film has amazing composition. The cinematography and directing is striking. The audio is quite striking as well, like during the dog attack the sound of digiridoos (spelling?) blends with the dog's growling.
The film reminded me there are still many things in nature we do not completely understand yet. Some things seem to defy scientific explanation. Having just finished viewing this film for the first time, I could probably write a dozen pages about this film and how I interpret it. Someone else could do the same and our ideas might be quite different.
For one, this film is about is how every once in a while, whether you live in the city or the country, sometimes everybody's biggest problems can come to the surface all at once. In this film, the s--- hits the fan for several different people in the same place, but in different ways. There are no flat, one-dimensional characters here.
I don't want to muddle peoples' impressions of this film with comparisons to other movies. There is definitely some "X-Files" type stuff going on, and parts of it reminded me of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But in general this film is quite unique, and is virtually unknown in the United States.
There is no DVD available in NTSC Region 1, and the copy I watched was a dusty old VHS tape issued by HBO, I recently found it in the Sci-Fi section of the old, cluttered video store I work at. The cover looked interesting. Usually when I find a film made in certain foreign countries, I assume a lot of people there must have liked it if it a US distributor picked it up. Of course that is not always true, and thousands of great foreign films never get released here, while plenty of crap finds its way here thanks to the money hungry corporations monopolizing the distribution networks. But I've always had good luck with films from Australia, such as Chopper, Razorback, and The Last Wave.
I really hope this film gets a DVD release over here. I would love to view it with better picture quality. I am also curious to know if this film was big hit in Australia
Incubo sulla città contaminata (1980)
Amazing!! Why haven't more people seen this film?
I am awestruck by this movie. Fast zombies that can use weapons, even guns, and are capable of intelligent thought. They plot a strategic offensive to take over the city, hitting the airport, then the TV stations and the power plant. If you love horror, gory, and violent movies and don't mind a little bad acting, then you will LOVE this movie. It is exciting and even a bit suspenseful. It starts out fast and hard and maintains a steady pace of mayhem and carnage.
I can't believe more people haven't seen this film. I have yet to meet a horror movie buff that has seen this film before. It is a true gemstone of European horror and exploitation, definitely up to par with the classics of the genre such as Zombi 2, Demons, House by the Cemetery, etc. And it's even readily available uncut (92 minutes) on DVD from Anchor Bay (under the title "Nightmare City") and on VHS under the title "City of the Walking Dead." Super gory and violent, a must for fans of Italian grind house flicks.