Tales from the Script (2009)

Director: Peter Hanson

Writers: Peter Hanson, Paul Robert Herman

Composer: T.J. Raider

Starring: A shitload of screenwriters including John Carpenter, Shane Black, Jane Anderson, Larry Cohen, Frank Darabont, Antwone Fisher, Mick Garris, William Goldman, Peter Hyams, Richard Rush, Paul Schrader, Ron Shelton, Guinevere Turner

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Hollywood screenwriters finally get the last word.

Plot: Dozens of Hollywood screenwriters share hilarious anecdotes and penetrating insights in "Tales from the Script," the most comprehensive documentary ever made about screenwriting. By analyzing their triumphs and recalling their failures, the participants explain how successful writers develop the skills necessary for toughing out careers in one of the world's most competitive industries. They also reveal the untold stories behind some of the greatest screenplays ever written, describing their adventures with luminaries including Harrison Ford, Stanley Kubrick, Joel Silver, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

I fancy myself as being pretty damn creative in certain areas.   Anyone who reads this blog will know that writing isn't one of them (but you like the pretty pictures, don't you?).  One thing I've always known about movies is you've got to start with a good script.  If you don't then you risk having a bad film.  Sure you can get guys like Brando or Olivier that make even the most trite dialogue sound reasonable and you can spend $50 million on special effects but that will only carry you so far.  If the story sucks the film will likely follow.  This documentary is almost dizzying with how many people we get to hear from and frequently but it never lost my interest.  I admire people who can create the starting point for a picture, the foundation.  It's shocking at the amount of lunacy that those in charge of production (the often talentless suits) inflict on the creative types that makes it happen.  Will it ever cease to amaze me?  Probably not but it's great hearing the stories these talented people have to tell.

Demonia (1990)

Director: Lucio Fulci

Writers: Lucio Fulci, Piero Regnoli, Antonio Tentori

Composer: Giovanni Cristiani

Starring: Brett Halsey, Meg Register, Lino Salemme, Christina Engelhardt, Pascal Druant, Grady Clarkson, Ettore Comi, Carla Cassola, Michael Aronin

More info: IMDb

Tagline: No Evil Deed Goes Undone!

Plot: A Canadian archaeological team in Sicily accidentally unleashes vengeful ghosts of five demonic nuns whom were murdered 500 years earlier and the ghosts now set out to kill the group and townspeople alike.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  No, but I'll watch the cats video a million times.

Part of the Nunsploitation Project (July & August 2013). Click here for more naughty nun insanity!

Let's face it.  Lucio Fulci made a lot of bad movies but he almost always had some great looking and inventive shit in them.  DEMONIA is loaded with really cool scenes of gore and imagery.  For example...

Hombre (1967)

Director: Martin Ritt

Writers: Elmore Leonard, Irving Ravetch, Harriet Frank Jr.

Composer: David Rose

Starring: Paul Newman, Fredric March, Richard Boone, Diane Cilento, Cameron Mitchell, Barbara Rush, Peter Lazar, Margaret Blye, Martin Balsam, Skip Ward, Frank Silvera, David Canary, Val Avery, Larry Ward, Linda Cordova, Pete Hernandez, Merrill C. Isbell

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Hombre means MAN... Paul Newman is HOMBRE!

Plot: John 'Hombre' Russell is a white man raised by the Apaches on an Indian reservation and later by a white man in town. As an adult he prefers to live on the reservation. He is informed that he has inherited a lodging-house in the town. He goes to the town and decides to trade the place for a herd. He has to go to another city. The only stagecoach is one being hired for a special trip paid by Faver and his wife Audra. As there are several seats others join the stagecoach making seven very different passengers in all. During the journey they are robbed. With the leadership of John Russell they escape with little water and the money that the bandits want. They are pursued by the bandits. As they try to evade the bandits they reveal their true nature in a life threatening situation.

My rating: 8.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

I've got to say, I'm getting more and more impressed with Netflix and their instant selection.  It's getting better and I'm finding more older (pre-1980) titles.  When it comes to classic movies the service is still bad but it is improving.  HOMBRE is fantastic!  Paul Newman plays the character with much reserve and he doesn't waver for one moment through to the exciting conclusion.  And he's not the only one doing some 'acting'. The rest of the cast does a fine job, too, especially Richard Boone as Grimes, a reeeeeeal asshole.  It's remarkable to see him go from supreme-o super cool good guy in HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL (1957-1963) (an outstanding TV show, by the way) to this scumbag just a few short years later.  What an actor he was.  After Elmore Leonard's recent passing a buddy of mine wanted to check out one of his film adaptations he hadn't seen yet and this one fit the bill.  HOMBRE's social commentary is just as valid today is it was nearly 50 years ago.  Don't overlook it.

Sacrilege (1987)

Director: Luciano Odorisio

Writers: Gino Capone, Carlo Lizzani, Luciano Odorisio, Piero Chiara

Composer: Pino Donaggio

Starring: Myriem Roussel, Alessandro Gassman, Renato De Carmine, Alina De Simone, Augusto Zucchi, Flaminia Lizzani, Almerica Schiavo, Nicoletta Boris, Cyrus Elias

More info: IMDb

Plot: The young noble Don Monza is caught and thrown out by the nun Virginia de Leva when she catches him flirting with one of her nun sisters across the stone wall between their gardens. He hears the rumor that she'd have an affair with her trustee - so he kills him in a set-up duel and aims to take his place. Against her initial resistance, Monza manages to win her heart - and to get into her bed. This doesn't stay a secret for long, but Monza, now in love, does everything to keep it going.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Part of the Nunsploitation Project (July & August 2013). Click here for more naughty nun insanity! 

Aka THE DEVILS OF MONZA, it's well scored (Pino Donaggio in his Bernard Herrmann mode - love it) and surprisingly well dubbed.  It's a pretty interesting story (men can be such assholes sometimes) and it gets political but you get a reasonable smattering of the goods...

This is a picture that is REALLY hurt by not being presented in its original widescreen format.  It feels as constrained and claustrophobic as Sister Virginia's fate (I think this is the fourth version of this story I've seen since this project began).  It needs to breath.  If a proper OAR print surfaces, I wouldn't be opposed to seeing it again.  Watching a darkened, fullscreen copy is just awful.

Cleanflix (2009)

Directors: Andrew James & Joshua Ligairi

Writers:   Andrew James & Joshua Ligairi

Composer: Chris Ohran

Starring: Danny Thompson, Ray Lines, Alan Erb, Neil LaBute, Richard Dutcher, Robert Perry, Isaac Lifferth, Steven Soderbergh, Jared Hess, Michael Apted

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Sex. Violence. Mormons. Movies.

Plot: Dozens of Utah DVD retailers attracted unwanted attention from Hollywood heavyweights when, in the name of conservative family values, they began sanitizing films of sex, nudity, profanity, and violence. Outraged over the unauthorized editing of their work, prominent filmmakers began to speak out, thrusting the two groups into an intense legal, theoretical, and moral battle that would last six years before coming to a shocking conclusion.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Many years ago I heard about a company that removed offensive material for church-going folk and rented and sold them in Utah.  I thought it was nuts that they weren't immediately sued out of business.  I was shocked to find it out it took ten years or so for them to stop but there are still companies out there that continue to do it.  What they were doing is blatantly illegal regardless of the righteous reasons they claimed.  I knew that one company had snuffed it but I was very curious as to how it went down and this documentary lays it down for you.  It's very entertaining and it's funny to see so many guilty people hang themselves with their words, particularly one Danny Thompson who owned a video rental store that participated in this scheme.  He's very vocal and there are some interesting accusations thrown at him about his personal life that are sure to shock and surprise you (although not so much when you look at these people generally as hypocrites).  There is some satisfaction knowing the troubles he created for himself but his thrusting himself into the limelight as the poster boy (literally, too) for this industry is his own undoing.  Douche.

I'm not exactly a "let's string 'em up" guy when it comes to this.  They do have a point when it comes to providing a service for a marketplace that's demanding their product.  There are a lot of folk in Utah that want to see PG, PG-13 and R movies but without all of the good stuff.  It's ridiculous, I know, because often times the offending material enhances or outright tells the story.  If you are a religious person, why would you want to see a diluted PULP FICTION (1994), for example, which is drenched in language and violence.  The entire movie is about bad things and the people who carry them out.  Wouldn't you prefer to stay away from something filled with so much underlying sin?  It beats me why someone would want to see it like that.  It's on Netflix instant.  Check it out. It's worth a look.

Kevin Pollak's New Standup Comic Documentary & Kickstarter Project - Misery Loves Comedy

I've been a huge fan of Kevin Pollak since the 80s when my adolescent self was eating up all the standup comedy I could get my greedy little hands on.  He's very talented and smart and it shows in his work, especially his dramatic film roles.  I love documentaries about comics and the art of comedy so this one is right up my alley and I can't wait to see it.  This blog is fueled by my passion for movies and I'm posting this because it touches my other passion for standup comedy. 

Some of the funny folks involved are:

Christopher Guest
Jim Gaffigan
Dana Carvey
Ralphie May
Richard Lewis
Rob Delaney
Nick Griffin
Penn Jillette
Eddie Izzard
Jon Favreau
Joel McHale
James L. Brooks
Paul Feig
Tom Hanks
Harry Shearer
Marc Maron
Jason Reitman
Barry Sonnenfeld
Dave Thomas
Chris Hardwick
Scott Auckerman
Matt Walsh
Richard Kind
Alan Zweibel
Bobby Slayton
Peter Farrelly
Dana Gould
Andy Richter
David Wain
Greg Proops
Tom Lennon
Lisa Kudrow
Peter Serafinowicz
Eugene Mirman
Kevin Nealon
Kumail Nanjiani
Laraine Newman
Stephen Merchant

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.  As a Kickstarter project, there are some neat goodies you get with your contribution.  The $60 pledge is a good one with a signed DVD, among other things, and your name in the credits!  If you are near Los Angeles then 40 bucks more gets you that plus two tickets to the premiere!

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

My raging passions include just two, movies and standup comedy, and when I see the two come together in something as special as this, I just have to spread the word.  If this interests you, take a look at it and hopefully contribute.  I REALLY want to see this movie.  Don't make me come over there and smack you upside the head for not doing anything.

Sushi Girl (2012)

Director: Kern Saxton

Writer: Kern Saxton & Destin Pfaff

Composer:  Fritz Myers

Starring: Tony Todd, Noah Hathaway, James Duval, Andy Mackenzie, Mark Hamill, Courtney Palm, Sonny Chiba, David Dastmalchian, Jeff Fahey, Michael Biehn, Danny Trejo

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Revenge is a dish best served raw.

Plot: Fish has spent the past six and a half years in jail. Six and a half years keeping his mouth shut about the robbery and about the other men involved. The night he is released, the four men he protected with silence celebrate his freedom with a congratulatory dinner. The meal is a lavish array of sushi, served off the naked body of a beautiful young Japanese woman. The sushi girl is trained to ignore everything in the room, even if things become dangerous. Sure enough, the four unwieldy thieves can't help but open old wounds in an attempt to find their missing loot and when the sushi hits the fan?  Oh, boy!

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Probably not.

SUSHI GIRL opens with Tarantino/Rodriguez GRINDHOUSE (2007)-style credits lettering letting you know right from the start where this is coming from.  They even go so far as to borrow many actors who have acted in their movies but what a cast, huh?  Don't get used to most of them.  From Chiba on down they barely have any screen time.  But that's not the only reason why you need to see this fun picture.  One word:  Mark FUCKING Hamill!!!

He owns this picture.  He's fantastic and his performance is so much fun that it makes me feel ashamed that I haven't been following his acting career since RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983).  That's about to change.  He's hilarious.  Physically he looks like he's channeling Paul Williams.  Sadly, he looks like a broad I once knew.  That aside, he's the single best thing about the film but that's not all.

Courtney Palm looks amazing and she's got a Brinks truck loaded with patience.  For just about the entire film she's lying perfectly still on the table with food on her body.  Since I watched this on Netflix instant I wasn't able to grab a screenshot, otherwise I would've used a different image than the one above.  The rest of the cast does a fine job and there's a nice score by Fritz Myers.  The film looks really good, too, and that's a huge plus for such a claustrophobic picture as this (it mostly takes place in one room).  The resolution took a teensie bit too long for my tastes but the film works as a whole and if I watch it again, it'll be to see Hamill have a blast.