Saturday, June 02, 2012

FILLMORE DISCOS 71

Piranha 3DD, 2012 (*) 
after Alexander Aja's gleefully entertaining Piranha 3D, my modest hopes for this sequel were quickly dashed by the pathetic rubber piranhas, by the cheesiest use of 3D since Friday The 13th 3D (without the attraction of Jason), by the ridiculous coyness of the lead 'actresses' in the 'sex' scenes, by the sub-American Pie humour, and by a David Hasselhoff barely able to stand up let alone deliver a coherent line 

Atrocious, 2011 (*****) 
if you're as much a shaky-cam/fake documentary diehard as myself, then you're in for a treat - for me, Atrocious goes straight into the pantheon of POV greatness and arguably ranks 3rd only to The Blair Witch Project and the likewise Spanish [Rec]; note, get the 75 minute original and avoid the awful English dubbed version

The Devil Inside, 2012 (***) 
the potential pay-offs for these shaky-cam horror films is staggering; for a budget of $1,000,000 this exorcism mockumentary has apparently already grossed more than $50m in the USA alone - it's certainly more than watchable: the locations are perfect and the exorcisms themselves boast surprisingly shocking effects, even with a suspension of disbelief for the supernatural that is less than willing; on the downside, the priests themselves are not credible and way too much English is spoken, reducing one's credulity further, though never quite fatally 

Sweet Karma, 2009 (***)
mute Russian girl goes underground in the Toronto sex trade to avenge her missing sister; you get lots of gritty and believably sleazy action with some appropriately hard-hitting IDM beats throughout and, most thankfully of all, no Lukas Moodysson-style religious symbolism and/or moralising 

Human Tornado, 1976 (*****) 
the sequel to Dolemite sees even more of Rudy Ray Moore's genius - the opening live stand-up scenes mixed with music and dancing in the club are amazing in their own right, whilst the film proper is as outrageously entertaining as the original 

Iron Sky, 2012 (*) 
teenage boys from Finland in between sessions on their Xbox 360 game consoles make spectacularly unfunny sci-fi comedy drivel about Nazis on the dark side of the moon, all as a vehicle to make the most inanely stupid cheap shots imaginable about America; what an incredible waste of ten million dollars

3 comments:

D. Thomas said...

Sweet Karma sounds a little bit like the Russian films Brother (and Brother 2) with less IDM and more non-moralising (Russian attitudes toward blacks and gays very much extant and unapologised for, for instance).

Odile Lee said...

Piranha.
Another film of my youth, of which I enjoyed scaring myself in fresh water lakes by suddenly thinking of. ( Creative marinations, create much more than one wants sometimes!)

William, you have to see
"Bad Boy Buby" ( aussie classic )
"Happiness" ( American ) too sick. so sick you'll be cringing even as you laugh
"From Within " Lovecraftian sexual deviancy and emerging pineal glands
" Nightporter" Nazi redeemed by passionate love for conc. camp woman ( the camp where guards had relations with prisoners ), S&M, Charlotte Rampling, Dirk Bogard, ballet, uniforms. Classic.
"Butterfly " Pia Zadora, awful trash, camp as hell, first time as a 12 year old I saw oral sex ( WTF is THAT?!!)
"Evil Dead' classic Sam Rami psycho horror, hilarious
All favs of mine ( except Butterfly, but SO bad its worth a look.)

Odile Lee said...

Piranha.
Another film of my youth, of which I enjoyed scaring myself in fresh water lakes by suddenly thinking of. ( Creative marinations, create much more than one wants sometimes!)

William, you have to see
"Bad Boy Buby" ( aussie classic )
"Happiness" ( American ) too sick. so sick you'll be cringing even as you laugh
"From Within " Lovecraftian sexual deviancy and emerging pineal glands
" Nightporter" Nazi redeemed by passionate love for conc. camp woman ( the camp where guards had relations with prisoners ), S&M, Charlotte Rampling, Dirk Bogard, ballet, uniforms. Classic.
"Butterfly " Pia Zadora, awful trash, camp as hell, first time as a 12 year old I saw oral sex ( WTF is THAT?!!)
"Evil Dead' classic Sam Rami psycho horror, hilarious
All favs of mine ( except Butterfly, but SO bad its worth a look.)