MoH 206: Pelts (2006)

Director: Dario Argento


Starring: Meat Loaf, Link Baker, Emilio Salituro, Elise Lew, Shawn Hall, Sylvesta Stuart, John Saxon, Ellen Stephenovna Ewusie

More info: IMDb

Plot: A sleazy, desperate fur trader who haunts a local strip club, gets his hands on some priceless raccoon furs that might be more than just priceless but cursed.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? Nope.

This is a strange one.  Meat Loaf turns in a fine performance and Ewusie is SMOKING hot.  If there were a god, I'd thank him/her for getting this broad to take her clothes off on camera; well, that and the producers who paid her to do it.  The supernatural element to the story didn't sell me as well as it should have but I liked what happens to Meat Loaf.  That's some fucked up shit.  Too bad they couldn't let it be something that happened as a result of a mental thing where he drove himself to do it rather than supernatural thingies.  Still, it's not that shabby of an episode.

The Broken (2008)

Director: Sean Ellis

Starring: Lena Headey, Ulrich Thomsen, Melvil Paoupaud, Michelle Duncan, Asier Newman, Richard Jenkins, Daren Elliott Holmes, Howard Ward, Damian O'Hare, Dennis Banks

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Face your fears.

Plot: On a busy street in London, Gina, a successful radiologist, thinks she sees herself drive past in her own car. Stunned by this strange event, Gina follows the mystery woman up to her apartment. From here, events take an eerie turn for the worse which leads to a car accident. Soon Gina's awareness slides from solid reality into a world that will haunt more than just her nightmares as she attempts to unravel the mystery where the only clue is a broken mirror.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

Think of this as a British INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956) for the art house crowd.  It's quite good, actually.  It's a slow burn for 93 minutes but it's very moody and eerie.  Nice score by Guy Farley.  The fact that things move slowly as Gina (Headey) puts the pieces together really works for me.  It doesn't hurt that the awesome Richard Jenkins also stars.  It's weird I don't have much to say despite digging it.  If it seems like this might be up your alley, I recommend checking it out.  If it's not, there's some serious eye candy courtesy of Lena Headey but if that's the only reason why you'd watch it, you'll be fast asleep by the time you get there.

Shark! (1969)

Director: Samuel Fuller

Starring: Burt Reynolds, Arthur Kennedy, Silvia Pinal, Barry Sullivan, Enrique Lucero, Manuel Alvarado, Carlos Barry, Jose Chavez, Francisco Reiguera, Emilia Stuart

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A realistic film became too real! Shark will rip you apart!

Plot: A gunrunner loses his cargo near a small coastal Sudanese town so he's stuck there. When a woman hires him to raid a sunken ship in the shark-infested waters, he sees a chance to compensate for his losses. He's not the only one.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? Nope.

I dig watching Burt Reynolds pictures before Burt came into his own with WHITE LIGHTENING (1973).  He's hit and miss.  In SHARK he's hit but the movie isn't.  I was surprised to see that Samuel Fuller directed this.  I certainly wouldn't have known it if I hadn't seen his name in the credits.  It's pretty uneven and looks like it was shot on the cheap.  The only copy I could find looked like a shitty VHS print.  I'm sure if I watched a good quality widescreen print I might be singing a different tune but still, every scene with Burt was fun.  The underwater scenes are a mixed bag.  At times they're dull but then every once in a while you'll get a cool shark attack on a diver that looks pretty damn dangerous.  The ending was cool and left a little open.  The bottom line is Burt is cool and has moments of super coolness.  Too bad the film couldn't match that.

Anger Management (2003)

Director: Peter Segal

Starring: Adam Sandler, Jack Nicholson, Marisa Tomei, Luis Guzman, Allen Covert, Lynne Thigpen, January Jones, Woody Harrelson, John Turturro, Kevin Nealon

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Feel the love

Plot: Mild-mannered timid businessman Dave Buznik who works for a pet clothing company out of New York City. He's got an abrasive boss named Mr. Frank Head who frequently takes credit for his work and steps on him in return. He's got a loving girlfriend, Linda, whose best friend is her condescending college ex, Andrew. But when a misunderstanding aboard an airplane goes haywire, Dave is ordered by the court to undergo anger management therapy at the hands of specialist Dr. Buddy Rydell, who is an unpredictable, psychopathic character. As the relationship between Dave and Buddy becomes more tense, when the unorthodox treatment wreaks havoc Dave's life, and Buddy might be the only one who can save him from a problem he recognizes right away in his patient, that could only get worse.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

SPOILERS AHEAD!  YARRRRRR!

I'm not a fan of Sandler's although I really enjoyed HAPPY GILMORE (1996) and THE WEDDING SINGER (1998).  I was hoping that ANGER MANAGEMENT would be added to the list simply because Nicholson's in it.  Nope.  Dr. Rydell's (Nicholson) actions are horrible.  There are moments when they're funny and others when he's not such a bad guy but in between all of that, he's a real shit.  Because of that I can't comprehend how anyone would allow this to happen.  I know, it's a movie...but still.  And forget about the ending. It's insulting.  That this was all a ruse just to write a book is pure bullshit.  There's no way the final act finale at the baseball stadium could ever happen especially when you take into account everything that had to fall into place for Dave (Sandler) to have found his way to the microphone in the first place.  This flick half rubbed me the wrong way and the ending was a slap in the face.  Besides, there's no way any sane man (or woman) would put their relationship with Marisa Tomei in jeopardy.  I call shenanigans.

About Schmidt (2002)

Director: Alexander Payne

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Kathy Bates, Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, June Squibb, Howard Hessman, Harry Groener, Connie Ray, Len Cariou

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Schmidt Happens

Plot: Warren Schmidt has led a safe, predictable life working in the insurance industry in Omaha, Nebr. for many years, yet now faces retirement. At the same time he is forced to take a hard look at his wife, his life and his relationship with his estranged daughter. An often hilarious series of events follow as Schmidt embarks on an unpredictable RV journey to attend his daughter's wedding in Denver.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

Jack Nicholson plays a great lovable asshole.  I really liked this picture. It's funny but in a dark, sad way.  The movie is leisurely paced and Schmidt's interactions with all kinds of people he meets on his journey is some damn funny stuff which culminates with his meeting the mother of his daughter's soon-to-be husband played hilariously by Kathy Bates.  The infamous hot tub scene is worth the price of admission.  Kathy Bates gets full on naked and it's wonderful but not in any kind of sexual way.  That she bared all, albeit briefly, for the camera puts her at the top of the "Actors with huge balls" list.  That just makes her even more awesome than she already was.  Fun flick.

Pink Floyd The Wall (1982)

Director: Alan Parker

Starring: Bob Geldof, Christine Hargreaves, James Laurenson, Eleanord David, Kevin McKeon, Bob Hoskins, David Bingham, Jenny Wright, Alex McAvoy

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Pink Floyd The Wall. Now The Film.

Plot: Rock singer "Pink" who is sitting in his hotel room in Los Angeles, burnt out from the music business and only able to perform on stage with the help of drugs. Based on the 1979 double album "The Wall" by Pink Floyd, the film begins in Pink's youth where he is crushed by the love of his mother. Several years later he is punished by the teachers in school because he is starting to write poems. Slowly he begins to build a wall around himself to be protected from the world outside. The film shows all this in massive and epic pictures until the very end where he tears down the wall and breaks free.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

No film is going to completely live up to the greatness of their album but this is pretty damn good.  The music is the star but what is visually built around it is fascinating.  The real life images mixed with the wonderfully bizarre animation by Gerald Scarfe are a feast for the eyes without detracting from the music.  It's the kind of thing you can pop in and out of and not feel all that out of place (as long as you're familiar with the songs or at least the general plot).  At 95 minutes it's surprisingly short.  I would have liked for the film makers to have used ever song from the album but I can always put the record on and close my eyes for my own film version.

Pink Floyd - The Making of 'The Dark Side of the Moon' (2003)

Director: Matthew Longfellow

Starring: Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright, Nick Mason, Storm Thorgerson, Nigel Williamson, David Fricke, Robert Sandall, Alan Parsons, Chris Thomas, Bhaskar Menon

More info: IMDb

Plot:  Well, it's about the making of one of the greatest albums of all time, Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

So a buddy calls me yesterday and says it's the 40th anniversary of the release of The Dark Side of the Moon.  Naturally he's now going to have to come over so we can watch this documentary (he'd seen it, I hadn't).  It features interviews with all of the major participants and begins with where the band was, creatively, leading up to writing the songs for this record.  Once we're there it's a song-by-song look with insights from the band, engineer, producer, etc.  As a long time fan of Floyd it's really interesting and fun, especially when the band members play bits on their instruments 30 years later (at no point are any of the guys in the same room with anyone else in the band).  Of course now our appetite is whetted for some more Pink Floyd so what do you do?  Slap in PINK FLOYD THE WALL (1982).