Sugar Hill

Sugar Hill (1974)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Paul Maslansky

Starring: Marki Bey, Robert Quarry, Don Pedro Colley, Betty Anne Rees, Richard Lawson

From: AIP

Happy Halloween, everyone... or at least a Happy October 31: 

It's been WAY too long since I have watched any blaxploitation so I might as well do so at this time of year and thus I came across a film that is on Prime; bizarrely, on there the opening credits are fullscreen but the rest is 1:85.1.

The plot is not a complicated piece of work: the titular Sugar Hill is a young lady who has a boyfriend, Langston; he runs a successful nightclub. A white gangster and his henchmen wish to buy the club; Langston refuses. A few minutes later, those villains beat him to death in his own parking lot. Now, this was one of several moments of unintentional hilarity: this beating not only took place while they were wearing tan pantyhose over their heads (barely obscuring their faces) but they still had on their distinctive colorful 70's outfits. Lord, there is the typically great 70's clothing you get in blaxploitation, along with the expected funky score.

Anyhow, Sugar decides to get revenge by... finding an old voodoo queen she's known for years and she resurrects Baron Samedi, who himself resurrects the undead to kill whitey. The deaths as seen on screen aren't graphic but some have rough implications. For example, one dies after being eaten by hungry hogs and another is in a coffin filled with large snakes. The actor that plays Samedi (Don Pedro Colley) is the most memorable aspect of the film, as he was an intimidating-looking dude who nonetheless had charisma and his smile when he realized some fool was about to die...

Of course the movie is on the silly side and AIP thought it was a good idea to have the swamps of Louisiana (actually filmed in Texas) to have a soundtrack as if it was in the deepest darkest jungles of Africa-it was sounds from Tarzan movies, obviously looped repeatedly-but overall this was a good time. Marki Bey was also memorable as the lead character and as I am me, I was greatly amused by one of the bad guys (only known as FABULOUS) being Mac from Night Court. As typical for a lot of blaxploitation, this was simply fun.

The Fly

The Fly (1958)

Runtime: 94 minutes

Directed by: Kurt Neumann

Starring: David Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price, Herbert Marshall, Kathleen Freeman

From: 20th Century Fox

Help me... help... me...

"He was searching for the truth. He almost found a great truth but for one instant, he was careless. The search for the truth is the most important work in the whole world and the most dangerous".

As I saw The Fly remake last week, it only made sense to check out the original when it played on TCM last night. By modern standards there is camp value with seeing a man with a human-sized fly head and a fly appendage for a left arm. Yet even if there were some slow stretches, I was never bored and I can say this is pretty good.

The general idea is the same as in the 1986 film: a brilliant man (in this case, Andre; the movie was set and filmed in Montreal) creates a teleportation device-although it's not referred to as that in this movie-and he has more success with inanimate objects until improvements are made... he does it to himself but a fly enters the chamber so disaster happens. But, gross body horror does not happen... he just appears with a fly's head and appendage. Hilariously, it means that there's a fly with a human's head and arm; a subplot is this man's wife, son and maid attempting to catch such fly, which even before the accident had a white head.

Another change is that a decent amount of the story is told in flashback. The opening has the aftermath of Andre's gruesome death, and his wife Helene was responsible. After a half hour, the flashback is shown then we arrive at the ending. Vincent Price is the most famous cast member but he's not the lead and plus, he's not in most of the flashback footage so he is gone for long stretches. That does not sink the film as the cast as a whole is fine... although as usual, Price was the most memorable aspect. This is in Cinemascope so between the widescreen photography and the DeLuxe Color, it was a pretty movie to look at.

At least for me, the film is still solid even 60 years later.

Headshot

Headshot (2016)

Runtime: 118 minutes

Directed by: Kimo Stamboel/Timo Tjahjanto

Starring: Iko Uwais, Chelsea Islan, Sunny Pang, Very Tri Yulisman, Julie Estelle

From: Several Indonesian Companies

In this late night post, I talk about quite the martial arts extravaganza:

No wonder the IMDb plot description ends with the phrase “Violence ensues. Sweet, sweet violence.” Believe me, it does.

Yesterday I signed up to Netflix again for a month; there are plenty of reasons why I am not consistently a member. To be honest, each time I sign up again the service seems to be worse than the last time I left. Still, there is programming of interest; it won't be too long before The Night Comes for Us will be viewed... rave reviews have been seen by me. However, many of the main players did Headshot first and as I hadn't seen it before... it would not be right to not check this out first.

The plot is not too terribly complicated or original: a mysterious man washes up on the beach and he has amnesia. This is after he wakes up from a two month coma. It's not quite as preposterous as it was in Seagal's Hard to Kill, where he's in a 7 year coma and after not much effort he is once again a martial arts expert kicking ass. But like in Hard to Kill he gets to know his nurse, although here it's just friendship instead of a torrid love affair. Anyhow, a lot of people are looking to kill the guy called Ishmael (the cute nurse was reading Moby Dick, you see, and randomly gave him that name) but as Ishmael is played by the awesome SOB known as Iko Uwais, he beats up those people, usually in glorious ways.

Headshot is on the silly side but to me that does not matter too much as this does deliver on the violence. It is rather brutal and over the top but it does deliver. There's plenty of brawls, gunplay, martial arts, and all the rest. The villain (Lee) is definitely made to be pretty despicable so it is very easy to root for Ishmael against the bad guys... and girl. This is not glorious like The Raid: Redemption but I did prefer this to The Raid 2, which was pretentious, had action that was too ridiculous, did not need to be 150 minutes long and had a half-assed Asian crime story which was done much better by others. Hammer Girl and Baseball Bat Man were two of the preposterous elements yet I can't complain about the performers in the role... well, Julie Estelle and Very Tri Yulisman are also in Headshot and they provide two of the most memorable scenes.

There is also pretty Indonesian scenery to admire and a modern electronic score; those that enjoy such things as The Raid films and The Night Comes for Us should check this out for more of the same.

Seeding Of A Ghost

Seeding of a Ghost  (Zhong Gui) (1983)

Runtime: 89 minutes

Directed by: Kuen Yeung

Starring: Norman Chu, Phillip Ko, Maria Jo, Jung Wang, Mi Tien

From: Shaw Brothers

Wild, this was: 

At least this ended with a bang.

For awhile now I've known of this infamous Shaw Brothers production; recently I tracked down the movie on DVD and this was the perfect time to see what the hub-bub was about. Well... I see it did earn its reputation. The story: a dude accidentally hits a “dark magician” with his taxi cab and the taxi driver's luck turns rotten. His wife cheats on him then she is horrifically attacked and killed by two punks. Taxi driver unwittingly asks the guy he hits for revenge, which revolves around the dead wife's corpse. Bad things then happen to the punks and the cheater, most of them gross. This includes vomiting worms, disgusting images, and then the finale... I won't reveal what happens in the finale except that obviously the filmmakers had seen a horror movie that must have come out right before they rolled production on this.

The storytelling through this is not always strong and it does take time to get going-part of it is pretty much a police procedural, which was unexpected-but once it does, things get pretty wild. Thankfully most of the effects look fine even today, and what happens in the final few minutes are good, although not legendary like the film they are blatantly ripping off. This was retroactively rated as a Category III film (the rough equivalent of an NC-17 in the United States) in Hong Kong, and for good reason. There are plenty of bloody and downright icky special effects, there are taboo moments and there is gratuitous female nudity to be seen; I mean, more than one woman is full frontal.


This movie is set in modern times (i.e. early 1980's) so among other things you see a sweet Fiat X-19 vehicle and the soundtrack occasionally has some synth action. It seems like a lot of things were thrown (and literally at one point, fireballs were used as projectiles) against the wall to see what stuck; that's what I meant by uneven storytelling. That said, the film was still an experience so for some this will be the cat's pajamas.

I Talk About 4DX

Last night I revisited It (the one from last year) and it's very good. How I experienced the film was rather unique: 

The original review from September of '17 will be left up as my opinion of the movie has not changed. You can look for that and read my thoughts from last year if you so wish. The 1990 miniseries was enjoyable but this is better. Pennywise in this film was great, albeit in a different way than it was in the miniseries. I still like all the kids in The Losers Club and their interactions with each other; there are plenty of scares and how Pennywise moves like an animal: creepy. I understand some of the criticisms but to me It felt (and feels) fresh instead of hackneyed or cliched. Hopefully next year's It: Chapter 2 is just as much of a blast.

How I was able to see the film in a different way: 4DX otherwise shows first-run movies. However, for this week, because of the season they are showing a few different horror films a day until the 1st... it's mainly recent genre efforts like It or Jigsaw. For months now there's been one at a Regal Cinemas in Orlando but as a ticket is even pricier than for an IMAX engagement, it took them having half-off prices this week for me to give this unique theatrical experience a chance.

For those unaware of 4DX, it's where you watch a film in 2D or 3D and there are various added effects. The seats move all around (including sensors in the lower back of the seat), wind blows at you from the front, the seat itself and even-a few times, at least-the sides of the auditorium, although loud machines had to kick on to achieve the effect-water falls on you (although you could press a button to turn that off), lights flashed a few times from the side... a wacky gimmick, of course it was. At times the effect could be subtle... when the kids rode their bikes, the seats attempted to simulate this-but other times you could get jostled around... no wonder there was a sign just outside the auditorium listing a number of warnings.

Only a few others were in attendance, although I have no idea what they draw for first-run movies. For me the whole experience was at times distracting yet it was not something I hated. One day in the future I'll try it out again for a new motion picture and discover if my opinion has changed.

The Fly

The Fly (1986)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: David Cronenberg

Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz, Joy Boushel, George Chuvalo

From: 20^th Century Fox

Thankfully I still say that this motion picture is tremendous: 

If you're doing a dangerous scientific experiment involving yourself, perhaps don't have a baboon be the only observer on site. Then again, not doing it while drunk off of wine is another good idea. I had seen this before, although the last viewing in full was many years ago. It was something I saw bits and pieces of after the fact, but I don't even remember how long it was since I viewed The Fly from beginning to end, and this seemed like the best time to finally talk about this movie here.

To me this is just as effective as it was when it came out 32 years ago. The practical effects being excellent is a big reason why. In the end credits what had to be several dozen different people were listed as being part of the on-screen transformation of Seth Brundle to Brundlefly, and as of course it wasn't crappy CG it had not aged at all with the passage of time. What happens to that character is utterly horrifying, and plenty of frightening moments have stayed in my memory for all those years, as I am sure has happened to many others.

There are only a few characters that are focused on, and thankfully not only are they all interesting and three dimensional, but the right people were chosen for the parts. I couldn't imagine Brundle, Veronica Quaife or the (hilariously named) Stathis Borans being played by anyone else than Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, or John Getz. All three were great in their roles, especially Goldblum... it was not so difficult imagining him in the mid 80's as a very brilliant yet very eccentric man who could actually make a teleportation device work.

You care about the leads so you feel bad when the romance between Seth and Veronica goes sour due to the nightmare transformation that Brundle goes through. Mix in a quality Howard Shore score and Cronenberg being the director-I couldn't imagine any other director of his stature at the time nailing the movie's themes and horror so well-and to me this motion picture is still great and still blood-curdling and can still shock audiences today.

Free Solo

Free Solo (2018)

 

98% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 58 reviews)

Runtime: 100 minutes

Directed by: Jimmy Chin/Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

Starring: This is a documentary

From: National Geographic Documentary Films

Well, this was an unexpected sequel to Solo...

Actually, Free Solo is not about Han but rather talks about free solo mountain climbing and the insane idea that an expert in that field (Alex Honnold) of being the first to scale El Capitan at Yosemite National Park in California without the aid of any equipment such as ropes, hooks or what have you. I imagine someone has already thought of this... yes, just like what James T. Kirk did in the opening act of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Only, if you slip and fall, Spock in special boots won't fly up or down to save you.

Alex has to scale 2900 feet (884 meters) of a vertical granite surface where there aren't many places to hold on and sometimes you have to be very dexterous to move from one spot to another. Needless to say, many who engage in the act of free solo climbing end up passing away as they scale tall objects where a fall is instantly fatal. While Honnold is great at what he does, everyone is concerned about this attempt-including his girlfriend-so no matter the months of meticulous notes he takes or the practice runs he does with friends and safety gear, this becoming a tragedy was an entirely plausible result.

Perhaps not surprisingly for someone who is so successful at a given field, Alex is at least a little weird. There's always the possibility that some things were exaggerated for the cameras (whether by accident or on purpose; the observer effect is always a thing when it comes to documentaries) yet I am not surprised if him being distant from his girlfriend and not being able to effectively be affectionate to his lady is the God's honest truth. He is not a D-bag, but sometimes comes off as one.

I am glad I saw this on the big screen (thank you, AMC A-List app... I am still a fan of the service, BTW) as the theatrical experience was the best way of showing how massive El Capitan is and what an insane idea it is to climb it with no aids; furthermore, there are literally acres of beautiful scenery to marvel at. This was well shot by the directors that gave us Meru... a film I need to put in my virtual queue. You get surprisingly close to Alex at some points during his climbs. In general I am glad Free Solo was not a fall off the cliff sort of experience for me, as I learned something about a topic I really knew nothing about and I now fully appreciate those daredevils who even attempt such insane feats.