Cult Movies

In a nutshell: Ami is acting strangely after going missing.

If, like me, you are still lamenting the passing of the Great Man of Fantasy Filmmaking and you haven't seen this excellent documentary - now is your chance.

Title: Fast & Furious 6 (2013)Director: Justin Lin Cast: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Sung Kang, Tyrese Gibson, Gal Gadot, Ludacris, Luke Evans, Elsa PatakiReview: The important thing about a summer blockbuster is that it has to entertain; it has to blow you out of that seat and it has to make you leave that theater with a big fat grin on your face, and quite possibly the desire to see the film again. Fast Six achieves all these things with spectacular aplomb. With each film, the Fast and the Furious franchise has improved in quality; each film bigger than the last. Keeping in line with this tendency, Fast Six is more explosive and more action packed then the previous film and in my book that’s saying a lot because I truly enjoyed Fast Five (2011)! Aside from the fact that the film was shot in my home town and I had an amazing opportunity to see it getting made, Fast Five ended up being one of my favorites of the summer 2011 season, it was simply put a good action film. Now can somebody tell me how in the hell did this franchise which I initially disliked turn into one my favorite guilty pleasures?Fast Six starts out exactly where the previous one left off, with Toretto and crew enjoying the fruits of their last heist. Torreto is living in Brazil with Elena, his new girlfriend cop. Brian and Mia are learning how to become parents, and basically each of the characters has gone off into their own world, doing what they want with their millions, enjoying the fruits of their labor. Enter Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) the cop who almost caught Toretto and crew in the last film. Hobbs is having a hard time catching an international gang of thieves who are searching for the parts to build an emp device that could shut down a whole country for 24 hours. Hobbs needs the aid of Toretto and his team to stop these guys. Will the gang accept the mission?When talking about films of this nature, there’s a term used to describe the artifact that triggers the action in the film, I’m talking about ‘The McGuffin’ whatever it is that the good guys and bad guys are after in the film. The McGuffin is a name given to the excuse to get the show on the road. Sometimes, it doesn’t even matter what the McGuffin is, all that matters is how they go about getting it, which in a Fast and the Furious film means vehicular warfare and massive destruction of public property, and trust me, there’s lots of that in this film! The stunts are the best part of these films and this one delivers the goods when it comes to fast cars and destruction in massive amounts. The film has two major action sequences, but they are both extended, which means that they last for more than 20 minutes each. This is something I enjoy about the action sequences in these films, they are intricate and extensive! The same can be said for the chase sequences which take place in both the streets of London and Brazil. If you are a fan of cool cars and watching them fly in the air, you will be pleased. The whole thing about these films getting bigger and badder with each passing film stays true to the characters as well. These characters started out being a gang of street racing thugs from L.A. on the first film, by the sixth film they’ve turned into indestructible super heroes! They can jump from one moving car to the next! They can shoot their guns while jumping through the air! I mean, these guys can fall down a flight of stairs or crash into the windshield of a car and never even break a bone! Vin Diesel can even take a freaking bullet and go on driving in the next scene just fine. So my advice is to throw all your expectations of reality out the door. This film isn’t interested in being real, it just wants to wow you, entertain you with its exaggerated action sequences, which I have to say are truly fun. We get a bunch of cool cars, a tank and military plane! They really do go all out here in using all manner of cool vehicles.It was a genius idea adding Dwayne Joh

The buzz surrounding David Lowery's Ain't Them Bodies Saints has reached a deafening point. Praise has been heaped on the movie, everything from the direction to the pitch perfect acting, praise which has elevated the movie into the stratosphere. It's unlikely it can live up to the high bar but the newly released trailer certainly suggests that maybe, just maybe, this isn't a case of bloated expectations. [Continued ...]

Last Days on Mars could have been a good if it hadn't solely been made up of all the cliches that could fit a standard-sized whiteboard. [Continued ...]

Sebastian Silva's The Maid was a huge surprise, a funny and poignant drama about family, expectation and one woman's struggle to keep her job. The movie showcased Silva's dry sense of humour which may explain how he's ended up working with Michael Cera on not one but two films. One of those is the Sundance title Magic Magic which was also selected for the Cannes Director's Fortnight. [Continued ...]

Ran out out of Ghosthouse stuff, so back to Hausu. I believe this is the third time the film has supplied a MotD. Related PostsMonster of the Day #684 (May 7, 2013) Monster of the Day #683 (May 6, 2013) Monster of the Day #682 (May 3, 2013) Monster of the Day #681 (May 2, 2013) Monster of the Day #680 (Apr 23, 2013)

"At Any Price" casts Dennis Quaid as Henry Whipple, a big-business family farmer and salesman of genetically modified corn seed. Like the stereotype of a used-car dealer, this modern farmer is so smooth and insincere he literally slicks his hair down with his spittle-wetted palms before crashing a graveside funeral service, to get in an early bid on the dead man's property. "Time waits for no man," is his motto, along with: "Get big or get out." North Carolina-born Iranian-American independent filmmaker Ramin Bahrani hasn't gotten big, but "At Any Price" is a much more elaborate production than his previous features, the quintessential indies "Man Push Cart" (2005), "Chop Shop" (2007) and "Goodbye Solo" (2008). The latter movie gave a lead co-starring role to former Memphian and Elvis crony Red West, who plays Quaid's father in the new film. Although Bahrani doesn't focus this time on the immigrant experience, "At Any Price" is another of the director's examinations of America as a land of not just opportunity but harsh economic reality. This is ann idea ignored by most movies, which typically treat jobs as something to be ignored by attractive people in pursuit of love or adventure. The farm seen here is not the romanticized rural retreat of Kodak commercials but a high-stakes, high-pressure place of patent lawyers, copyrighted seeds and air-conditioned John Deere tractors equipped with GPS. Bahrani burrows deep into thhis environment; his evocation of place and culture is utterly convincing, even if his story seems to have gone before the cameras before it was quite ripe. Shot in Illinois by Bahrani's longtime cinematographer, Michael Simmonds, and edited by indie MVP Affonso Gonçalves ("Winter's Bone," "Beasts of the Southern Wild," Ira Sachs' made-in-Memphis "Forty Shades of Blue"), "At Any Price" is solid, almost square in its sincerity and traditional craftsmanship. It resembles a modest commercial release from the 1970s more than the gritty, obviously low-budget and more self-consciously atmospheric regional independent productions of Bahrani's past decade. The script, credited to Bahrani and newcomer Hallie Newton, contains enough incident for several movies or a full season of TV episodes ("Bate Motel," even). The result is Bahrani's most obvious film, a somewhat soapy drama that stumbles when it overemphasizes "issues" -- specifically, the controversy over GMOs (genetically modified organisms). When a high-school girl compares a farmer reusing patented seeds to a teenager bootlegging a DVD, Whipple says of his ironically named employer, the Liberty corporation: "They didn't just copyright movies, they copyrighted life." ("At Any Price" might be a companion piece of sorts to Gus Van Sant's recent disappointment "Promised Land," which placed Matt Damon in farm country.) A mannered actor whose pursed lips and strained grimaces sometimes suggest he never got over impersonating Jerry Lee Lewis, Quaid becomes increasingly effective as his deceptions unravel, and inconvenience is replaced by tragedy. His co-stars include Zac Efron as Whipple's resentful son, a would-be professional stock car racer whose dirt-track ambitions might have supported their own movie; Kim Dickens as Whipple's loyal wife; Heather Graham as his sexually available secretary; Maika Monroe as the son's girlfriend; and, best of all, Clancy Brown as a rival seed salesman. Early in the film, an outraged man refers to Whipple as a "shark"; later, Whipple, in turn, accuses the Clancy character of being a shark. Prompted by Quaid's signature ear-to-ear grin, the moviegoer may think of one of those cartoons in which a row of gape-mouthed fish are lined up by size, preparing to devour each other. Business as food chain? It may be an appropriate metaphor for Bahrani's message. Rated R for sexual content and profanity, "At Any Price" opens today (May 24) in Memphis exclusively at Malco's Ridgeway Four.

As I sit and stare at this blank slab of nothingness, trying desperately to come up with something clever to say, the scene from Roboforce (a.k.a. I Love Maria) where the female robot swoops in to rescue her male companions from certain death just in the nick of time is currently playing over and over again in my head. I think the reason this particular scene stands out from the rest is because I secretly wish I had a robot girlfriend, one who quotes Romeo and Juliet, drinks oil from a soda can and fires rockets from her wrists. Now, I realize what I just said is probably the dorkiest thing ever to be written in this site. But I don't care. I want a robot girlfriend, and I want it now! Oh, and if she could look exactly Sally Yeh, that would be great. I'm surprised you didn't go with robot Susan Tyrrell or robot Mary Woronov. Yeah, that was a tempting idea. However, I'd like to stick with the Sally Yeh model I saw in this Category III flick, directed by David Chung and Tsui Hark. Besides, I don't think Miss Tyrrell or Miss Woronov have the right temperament to play robots; they're too headstrong. At any rate, while I wouldn't exactly call myself a Category III expert, I think it's safe to say I have seen enough of them to know what to expect. And one of the main things I look for is weird shifts in tone. What I mean is, Hong Kong films made during this period seem to mix genres in a way that could be construed as haphazard. For example, one minute your watching a family-friendly action sequence where a buffoonish Tong Leung is attempting to take photographs of giant robot reeking havoc on a downtown street, and the next you're watching a forthright Sally Yeh put a bullet through the back of the head of some dweeb in a lab coat. Sometimes the shifts in tone occur onscreen simultaneously. The film's many bar scenes are prime example of this, as they mix slapstick comedy and over-the-top violence rather seamlessly. This style of filmmaking can be jarring to those who are not used to it; my first Category III film, Robotrix, is famous for being all over the map when it comes to tone (it's The Terminator meets Porky's). But I like said, now I think I'm better prepared to handle what they throw at me. And, believe me, you need to keep your eyeballs frosty while watching these films, as they will overwhelm and disorient the uninitiated. While not as awesome as Naked Killer (then again, nothing will ever be as awesome as that film), nowhere near as sleazy as Jailhouse Eros or Red to Kill, and not even close to being as insane as Robotrix, Roboforce (I actually prefer the title "I Love Maria," but decided at the last minute to go with the more generic-sounding "Roboforce") does have its moments. It's true, none of these moments include a big-boobed Amy Yip openly mocking the laws of gravity, but don't discount the gorgeous Sally Yeh, her bulletproof bosom will melt your heart and arouse your genitals. No, seriously. You haven't lived until you have seen Sally Yeh tilt her head slightly to the side in a decidedly robot fashion. I know, almost every actor who has ever played a robot or cyborg has done the head tilting thing. One of my favourite head tilters being Hallie Todd as Lal, Lt. Data's android daughter in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode titled: "The Offspring" (my eyes get moist and junk just thinking about that episode - dork!). Nevertheless, I thought Sally Yeh, who, according to her bio, was raised in Victoria, B.C., brought an inquisitive grace to her head tilting. Which is one of the keys to becoming successful in the cutthroat world of non-competitive head tilting. Think about it, head tilting is the physical manifestation of curiosity. The moment you stop tilting your head, is the moment you stop living. More on the art of head tilting in a second, a giant robot, one who doesn't tilt their head, is causing a shitload of havoc in the city's downtown core right this minute. A so-called "Van" that i

The packaging of MGM's DVD release of Hammer's HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES carries the critic's quote, "The best Sherlock Holmes film ever made." That may be stretching the truth a little but I'm willing to go along with the hyperbole when the film is this good. The movie begins with Holmes and Watson being told the tale of Sir Hugo Baskerville by Dr. Mortimer (Francis DeWolff). It appears that hundred years earlier, Sir Hugo kidnapped a young girl servant for the debased pleasure of himself and his house full of scummy friends. When the girl escaped across the moors Hugo gave chase with a pack of hounds, caught her and stabbed her to death. Moments later he was attacked and killed by a giant hound and ever since that day every male Baskerville heir has died a mysterious death on those same moors. Dr. Mortimer, a friend of the family, also informs Holmes that just weeks before, the most recent Lord of Baskerville Hall was found dead under strange circumstances. Mortimer asks Holmes to help him protect the life of the last male member of the family, who is arriving soon to take over the estate. The detective meets with the new Lord and agrees to help in this matter of the "Hound of Hell".This is the best known and most often filmed Holmes story, even though no version has ever been able to overcome the difficult problem of having Sherlock absent from the middle part of the tale. One of the strengths of this version is that when Dr. Watson and Henry Baskerville take center stage, the film doesn't suffer for it. Andre Morell is an excellent Dr. Watson, avoiding the horrible trap of earlier adaptations of making the character an idiot. Watson was never supposed to be a bumbling fool and Morell shows us a competent man caught up in mystifying circumstances, doing his level best to solve the case. Christopher Lee, as Baskerville heir Sir Henry, is given a rare opportunity to play a romantic lead and does a fantastic job. At the time Lee was petitioning for better roles at Hammer and this film had to feel like a step in the right direction for the actor. As Henry he is urbane, sophisticated, and a true gentleman — things that cannot be said of Dracula in the sequels he was being asked/forced to make for the studio. But the real acting laurels have to go to Peter Cushing as Holmes. He wonderfully captures the many facets of Doyle's beloved character. He is at times arrogant and pompous but always most concerned with finding and stopping evil. He doesn't suffer fools gladly but you never doubt his innate goodness or his desire to unravel the mystery at hand.. Cushing is in many ways the perfect Holmes and it's a shame that this fine film is his only big screen interpretation. Some of his BBC TV Sherlock adventures have been issued on DVD in recent years but those production's low budgets and cramped sets are all too often a distraction from the fine acting. It is shame Hammer did not produce more Holmes films with their excellent production design and this movie's overall level of high quality. What a missed opportunity!