20140315: Drama Review--Glengarry, Glen Ross

Glengarry, Glen Ross

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 1992, rated R, 100 minutes, drama.
2. IMDB: 7.9/10.0 from 59,517 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 12.5 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 94% on the meter; 89% liked it from 38,372 audience ratings.
4. I watched this film on Amazon Prime.
5. Directed by: James Foley.  Written by: David Mamet.
6. Starring: Jack Lemmon as Shelley Levene, Ed Harris as Dave Moss, Kevin Spacey as John Williamson, Al Pacino as Ricky Roma, Alan Arkin as George Aaronow, Alec Baldwin as Blake, Jonathan Pryce as James Lingk, Bruce Altman as Larry Spannel, Jude Ciccolella as the Detective.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Shelley, Dave, Ricky, and George are real estate salesmen who are under the gun to sell more real estate.  They work at Consolidated Real Estate in Arizona.  Their line manager is John; those above John brought in Blake to put a fire under these four.  So the re-working of their work life consists of a contest.  In two weeks, whoever comes in first in sales get a Cadillac.  Who comes in second gets a set of steak knives.  The other two get fired.


2. The common complaint is the availability of leads; that is, connections to a likely real estate sales that is worth a lot of money.  With Consolidated Real Estate, they get leads that are dubious and re-worked.  Shelley appeals directly to John for the premium leads, the 'Glengarry' leads.  He tries to construct a kickback scheme with John to get the Glengarry leads.


3. Dave and George do a lot of complaining, then consider robbing the office to get the Glengarry leads directly, then sell then to a competitor.  Ricky schmoozes James at length, and closes a deal.


4. The robbery does occur, and there is a great deal of consternation at the office.  The Detective is doing interviews.  Contracts and some of the leads have been stolen.  Ricky's deal with James got registered with the company and the bank, or at least that's what John tells Ricky.  Shelley comes in a little late and is so happy to have sold 8 units in a development.  Dave blows up and leaves after his interview with the Detective.  George gets interviewed next.  Ricky and Shelley swap war stories.


5. James tries to get out of his deal with Ricky.  Ricky and Shelley try to fast talk him out of this.  Ricky manages some quality talking time while the Detective interviews Shelley.  John manages to torpedo the deal.  Ricky is not happy with John.  Nobody does anything but abuse John.


6. Will the thief be discovered?  Will any of these four salesmen get their act together again?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Excellent acting illuminates this great story about the real estate business.
2. Five stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 No problems.  Nicely shot.


2. Sound: 10/10 Well-miked actors; no problems understanding the dialog with the sound at a reasonable volume.  Music is not a factor here, and the dialog is everything.


3. Acting: 10/10 Great performances: Ed Harris, Al Pacino, Alan Arkin, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin.  The fine story is made better by the excellent acting.


4. Screenplay: 10/10 Mamet's story is riveting with these actors executing brilliantly.

20140314: Drama Review--The Boondock Saints

The Boondock Saints

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Canadian live action feature length film, 1999, UR, 108 minutes, action, drama, crime.
2. IMDB: 7.9/10.0 from 170,740 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 7 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 20% on the meter; 92% liked it from 331,964 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 4.1/5.0 from 6,866,595 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Troy Duffy.
6. Starring:  Sean Patrick Flanery as Connor McManus, Norman Reedus as Murphy McManus, Willem Defoe as Paul Smecker, Billy Connally as Il Duce, David Della Rocco as Rocco.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Connor and Murphy, two Irish brothers in Boston, accidentally kill a couple of mob thugs.  They turn themselves in to the Boston PD, but are released and hailed as heroes.
   


2. After healing up and getting more equipment from friendly sources, the brothers start killing mobsters deliberately.  They take more than a bit of care in laying out the corpses, placing coins on their eyes, and policing the scene.


3. Agent Smecker, a gay FBI agent specialising in organised crime, deconstructs the crime scenes and soon suspects the brothers.  He's in a quandary for a while because the crime figures are the very people he would otherwise want to put behind bars.


4. After a time, they run with Rocco, who is not quite so careful as the brothers.  After a shootout with Il Duce, Smecker collects a finger, and the DNA points to Rocco.


5. The confessional scene with Rocco, the father, Connor, and Smecker was hilarious.  Afterward, Connor calls Smecker and tells him there will be big nasty meeting.


6. Will the brothers survive this one, or will the mob finally triumph?  Can Smecker get things under control?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: This cult film definitely deserves to be seen by action fans.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Just fine.


2. Sound: 10/10 Also no problems.


3. Acting: 8/10 Willem Dafoe was great.  Flanery and Reedus were fine in their roles.  Most of the other players were competent.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 The story has some holes for believability, but it does move right along, and the quandary of the FBI agent is interesting.

20140314: Horror Review--Cockneys vs Zombies

Cockneys vs Zombies

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. British live action feature length film, 2012, NR, 89 minutes, horror, comedy.
2. IMDB: 5.9/10.0 from 10,032 audience ratings. Estimated budget,
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 70% on the meter; 45% liked it from 6,807 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.4/5.0 from 107,823 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Matthias Hoene.
6. Starring:  Rasmus Hardiker as Terry, Harry Treadaway as Andy, Michelle Ryan as Katy, Jack Doolan as Davey Tuppence, Georgia King as Emma, Ashley Thomas as Mental Mickey, Tony Gardner as Clive, Alan Ford as Ray, Honor Blackman as Peggy.


2. Setup and Plot
1. First thread: twenty somethings in the East End of London plan a bank robbery.  Second thread: two workers at a construction site discover a walled up site dating back to Oliver Cromwell.  They break in in order to steal whatever they can get.  Unfortunately, there is a still active zombie inside.  Third thread: one of the construction managers calls up his girlfriend at the bank.  They touch bases about a massive theft they have planned using bogus paperwork.  Fourth thread: a home for pensioners is being shut down, and the tenants will be shipped off soon.


2. The first and third threads collide soon in the film: the girlfriend thinks the bank robbers are her boyfriend's underlings come to pick up the three million plus pounds of cash.  The robbers do not have the correct paperwork, so she signals the police.  The amateur robbers finally get the bills ready to go to the getaway van, but the police are there.  Then the zombies show up.


3. Running in parallel, the second thread unleashed a zombie apocalypse.  The retirees are gathering to do regular activities, but the zombies trudge in on their neighborhood.  The bank robbers and the police are overtaken by the zombies.


4. The survivors from the bank try to get to the retirees.  Some of them have relatives at the retiree home.


5. So, who will survive this comedy of errors?  Will the apocalypse be controlled?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Relatively light hearted treatment of the zombie apocalypse in East London.
2. Three stars of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Quite good.  There were places where gore and splatter were emphasized (whole frame) over other actions that show motivation, body English, reactions, and the like.


2. Sound: 7/10 No particular problems except for sound leveling on the music.


3. Acting: 6/10 It was good to see Honor Blackman again.  Except Harry Treadaway, no one was really bad in the film.  Several performances were pleasant.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 I did not expect the subordination to PC, but there it was.  If Michelle Ryan tries something, it always works.  If any of her male associates tries anything, it has a good chance of failure.  The criminal female bank employee seemed to get everything right, while her male superior got everything wrong.  Tiresome.  On the other hand, I got some laughs out of the film's dialog, and was glad to see family members actually caring about each other.

20140314: Comedy Review--Scream of the Bikini

Scream of the Bikini

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American (?) live action feature length film, 2009, NR, 99 minutes, comedy.
2. IMDB: 8.1/10.0 from 49 audience ratings. Estimated budget: 150,000 USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 0% liked it from 18 audience ratings.
4. I watched this on Amazon Prime.
5. Directed by: Kiff Scholl.
6. Starring: Kelsey Wedeen as 'Jasmine Orosco as Bridget,' Rebecca Larsen as 'Paola Apanapal as Sophia,'


2. Setup and Plot
1. This is a movie about a movie by director Fernando Fernandez.  It stars blonde model Bridget and brunette model Sophia, who have second lives as Jasmine and Paoloa, who are assassins.  In a tongue-in-cheek James Bond style, they kill people and steal stuff.  As models they practice their wit while at photo shoots or on the runway.  There are pillow fights, parties, lots of drinking, very clever lines, 1960s costumes, a death cult (the worst kind), and a criminal mastermind.  There are also a number of terrible translation and lip-syncing jobs done by (fictitious) Germans who are listed in the opening credits.  The technical references, compared to 2014 standards, are hilarious.  Goodness, I forgot the ultra-silly chases in mod clothing.


2. Set in South America in 1966, but filmed in Los Angeles, CA, USA.


3. The two leads follow strange paths to solve the mystery setup during their first assassination.  Will they be successful in defeating the bad guys?  Will they survive the death cult?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Funny sendoff of the 1960s spy genre.
2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 Looks like so-so 1960s VHS quality.  This is by intention, but it still looks bad.  The costumes were good.


2. Sound: 6/10 The lip-synching gets old after a while.  The terrible translations, though, are funny throughout. The music is more than a bit dull.


3. Acting: 8/10 The tongue-in-cheek attitude and affect was done well.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 Reasonably funny.  There were so many targets to make fun of from 1960s culture.

20140314: Horror Review--Attila

Attila

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, NR, 85 minutes.
2. IMDB: 2.2/10.0 from 184 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No Reviews Yet...' and 0% liked it from 14 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.5/5.0 from 7,328 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Emmanuael Ithier.  Screenplay by Anthony C Ferrante and Emmanuael Ithier.
6. Starring: Cheick Kongo as Nomad, Chris Conrad as Vito, Mikayla S. Campbell as Katie McVie, M. Steven Felty as General Thadeus, Roxanna Bina as Nicks, Emmanuael Ithier as Yorn.


2. Setup and Plot
1. According to IMDb, this picture was shot in Los Angeles, CA, USA.  According to the beginning of the film, the main action occurs in Eastern Europe.  Considering the number of Eastern European and Middle Eastern actors in the film, I was surprised that it was not filmed in Eastern Europe for the cost savings.


2. The Huns, by many accounts, were even shorter than the Romans, were light of weight, and perfectly suited to life on horseback.  In the opening sequence, the Huns were shown with zero horses, traveling and acting only as infantry.  They were depicted in the film as heavily muscled, tall in stature, and reliant on brute strength to win one-on-one battles.  This is in strong opposition to their usual description as light but agile, with exceptional skill in archery and fighting from horseback with swords.


3. The back story of re-assembling the Staff of Moses is just bovine scatology.


4. Given the matters above, the terrible dialog, the stupid acting, and the PC cliches, I was ready to give up on this one at 27 minutes in.  I watched the remaining 58 minutes just to see whether I missed something.


5. So, in this ridiculous setup, part of the Staff has been found in Eastern Europe.  Blood fallen on the case of the Staff re-animates Attila the Hun (well, maybe), who is seven feet tall and stronger than Thor.  This is more nonsense.


6. Will Vito recover the staff segment before Attila really fouls things up? 


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Where was the oversight on this film?
2. One star of five.  Black holes for acting, screenplay, and sound.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 6/10 Odd filtering was employed that was strong on blue, green, grey, while weak in red, yellow, orange.  Also, among the cast there were way too many faux blondes, and way too much time spent on the art of gum chewing with one's mouth open.  The random distribution of saliva is so attractive and sanitary; I'm surprised it was not spotlighted in slow motion.


2. Sound: 0/10 The actors were miked well enough.  Unfortunately, they spoke.  The incidental sound and music were almost always jarring or inappropriate.


3. Acting: 0/10 All the actors were terrible at acting in this film.


4. Screenplay: 0/10 Absurd, a complete failure.  I really could have done without the vile hallucinations of the 'effective' commander Vito.  Why would General Thadeus trust the Professor?  I would have liked an explanation of that.  The military fights the supernatural without knowing any rules of engagement?  This seems unlikely.  Even better, there seems to be little understanding of chain of command.  During one segment, the number of survivors in Vito's command seems to go up and down like a yo-yo from one scene to the next.  The movie gets stupider and less believable with each passing minute.  The real motivations seem not to be clear until quite late.


5. SFX: 2/10 Pretty poor. Some 1980s SFX were as good.

20140313: Horror Review--Scourge

Scourge

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American/Canadian live action feature length film, 2008, rated R, 89 minutes, horror.
2. IMDB: 4.2/10.0 from 693 audience ratings.  Estimated budget: 1.5 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet...' and 11% liked it from 358 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.9/5.0 from 125,515 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Jonas Quastel.
6. Starring: Russel Ferrier as Sheriff Durst, Robyn Ledoux as Jesse, Nic Rhind as Scott, Jason Harder as Sam, Marina Pasqua as Lydia.


2. Setup and Plot
1. In a small Washington town, a church from the 18th century burns down, releasing a trapped parasite.  The parasite infests a fireman who had the bad luck to fall down at the scene.  The parasite induces the host to connect with other people.  The parasite kills the host and travels to the next.


2. The sheriff is Jesse's uncle, and Scott is recently out of prison.  Even worse, the uncle framed Scott's father with the crimes that sent him to prison.  Scott and Jesse have to research the parasite and stop it.


3. Will Scott and Jesse stop this public hazard?  Will either of them survive?  Will the endless sequence of belches ever end?


3. Conclusions
1. High on my fecal roster for movies viewed in 2014.
2. One line summary:  Low budget parasite-based horror film set in Washington state.
3. One star of five.  Two black holes for acting and screenplay.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Good looking except for a regular smidgen of shaky cam.


2. Sound: 6/10  Music was used to no effect.


3. Acting: 0/10 Terrible.  No competent actors, and the direction seemed to be just as weak.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 Not much of a story, badly told, with absurd dialog and wobbly logic.  The actors did not have much to work with.  The cliches at the end did not help.

20140312: SciFi Review--Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Japanese/American animated feature length film, 2012, rated R, 88 minutes, scifi, thriller, horror.
2. IMDB: 5.9/10.0 from 6,383 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No score yet...', and 49% liked it from 902 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.3/5.0 from 58,396 audience ratings.
5. Directed by Shinji Aramaki, screenplay by Flint Dille, from a novel by Robert A. Heinlein.
6. Starring: Luci Christian as Carmen Ibanez, David Matranga as Johnny Rico, Justin Doran as Carl Jenkins, David Wald as Hero.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The film's name comes from Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel, Starship Troopers.  A live action theatrical film of the same name was released in 1997 directed by Paul Vanderhoeven, followed by Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004, straight to video), and Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (2008, directed by Ed Neumeier).


2. The book was excellent, the first movie was good, the second movie sucked rocks, and the third movie was somewhat better than the second.  This Japanese movie is truer to the American novel than the 2nd or 3rd movies.


3. The Terran Federation consists of humans who are fighting hives of giant insect colonies ruled by intelligent queens.  The initial point of contention for this film is on an asteroid.  On the asteroid is the Terran Fort Casey, which is under attack by a colony of Bugs.


4. The huge warship John A. Warden is docked at Casey.  The Warden has become infested. The much lighter vessel Alesia arrives for evacuation if needed.  The high-ranking psychic Carl Jenkins (played by Neil Patrick Harris in the first film) has taken command from Major Hero just before the Alesia's arrival.  The Mobile Infantry brought by the Alesia join with the survivors of the Warden to try to retake the Warden.


5. Through a series of misadventures, the Alesia is lost, and the Warden is taken over by the Bug queen.  The Bug-controlled Warden heads to Earth (Terra) to start infestation and eradication of humanity there.  The few surviving Mobile Infantry aboard the Warden contact General Rico in orbit around Earth.


6. Will the remnants stop the infestation?  Will Carmen get another command after losing the Warden?  Will Carl's treacherous actions be revealed, or will they be classified as 'research essential to the war' against the Bugs?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: As good as the first film, but with different strengths; looking forward to a sequel.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Art: 9/10 About 60 percent of the time, I thought this film looked wonderful. The other forty percent, I thought it looked fine, but the movements were a bit wooden/slow.


2. Sound: 9/10 No problems.  Loved the music in the closing credits.


3. Voice Acting: 9/10 Just fine.


4. Story: 7/10 The film was set as a film for adults, just as the book was and the first film was.  It is animated but it is rightfully rated R, just as the first film.  I do wish that more exposition had been done about the class warfare between the psychics (the entitled one tenth of one percent) versus everyone else.  Perhaps the biggest positive I could say is that I would like to see another one from the same group (Japanese/Korean, not so much American) who seemed to understand the material well.  The next film should be about whether Carl Jenkins' research was actually worth the betrayals that he wrought against his allies in the Navy and the Mobile Infantry.

20140309: Drama Review--The Wait

The Wait

1. Fundamentals, reception.


1. American live action feature length film, 2013, NR, 98 minutes, drama, thriller.
2. IMDB: 4.4/10.0 from 129 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 18% on the meter; 17% liked it from 242 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.1/5.0 from 2,016 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: M. Blash.
6. Starring: Jena Malone as Angela, Chloe Sevigny as Emma, Luke Grimes as Ben, Devon Gearhart as Ian, Michael O'Keefe as Ben's dad, Lana Green as Karen, Henry Gummer as Henry.


2. Setup and Plot


1. The picture opens just after the death of the mother of sisters Angela and Emma.  Someone calls Emma and tells her the mother will return.  Emma tells this to Angela who laughs in spite of her overall sadness.


2. The sisters are a bit slow getting officials in to look at the body. Karen (Emma's daughter) is a bit weirded out by everything.  Then again, so is Angela.  Her off and on budding romance with Ben is interrupted now and then with her dealing with the death.


3. Angela's semi-meltdown when Henry (Emma's ex) wants to see his mother in law was rather awkward.  No one had bothered to tell Henry about the death.


4. Spoiler alert: there is no resolution to anything.  The best is not ahead in the film; instead the best moment was the golden second before the film started.


3. Conclusions


1. One line summary: An island chain of awkward moments caught on film.
2. Two stars of five.


4. Scores


1. Cinematography: 9/10 Some great camera work to be sure, from the technical standpoint.


2. Sound: 5/10 Irritating and discordant, more or less like all the inner versus outer performance art pieces that comprise the film.


3. Acting: 2/10 Roughly speaking, every other performance I've seen from Chloe Sevigny was better than this one.  All the other performances (except, perhaps, that of Luke Grimes) seemed to be of the form 'hit your mark, say your lines, do not think.'  Actors should do a bit better than this.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 The interleaving of the narrative with footage of firemen doing their best to contain a huge forest fire was interesting to a point.  The characters in the film are not touched by it--unless they go looking for it, and most do not--but all this real destruction is nearby.  These entitled, upper class twits don't seem to see themselves losing ground (burning up inside) while their outer lives seem fine.  That's great from a 20 year old film student, but I could do without it in a motion picture that has been released.  The manipulative camera techniques were not all that helpful or interesting or novel; I don't feel that they advanced the narrative or the overall impact of the story.  Overall, the picture seemed like visiting an archipelago from a cruise ship.  Each island is less interesting than the last, and there is no particular coherence to the experience as a whole.

20140309: Anime Review--Chrome Shelled Regios

Chrome Shelled Regios

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Japanese animated television series, 2009, TV-MA, 24 episodes, anime.  Spoken word is in English (or Japanese).
2. IMDB: 7.2/10.0 from 134 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No Reviews Yet...' and 'No Score Yet...'
4. Netflix: 4.2/5.0 from 268,238 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Chris Cason.
6. Starring: Todd Haberkorn as Layfon Wolfstein Alseif, Monica Rial as Felli Loss, Brina Palencia as Nina Antalk.


2. Setup and Plot
1. This anime series is set on a planet that is not Earth.  Most of the planet is desert with poisoned air.  There are nomadic cities (called Regios) that travel across the deserts searching for minerals and water.  Cities are all walled and fortified, but some have large, skilled military contingents; others do not.  The cities share the desert with Contaminoids (Funimation's translation of 'filth monsters' in the Japanese), which have three life stages, and seem to enjoy killing any normal organic life.


2. Layfon was a Keeper of the Heaven's Blades in the military city of Glendan.  That is, he was one of the most elite fighters in a city dominated by the military arts.  He leaves Glendan (in disgrace, we later find out) and moves to the academic city of Zuellni.  He hopes to found a life for himself in business, and never do any military activity again.


3. Unfortunately, Kalian Loss, the president of the student council, dragoons Layfon into the small military arts section of the university.  As much as he tries, Layfon cannot hide his facility at using all three types of the magical energy kei: external (projectile weapons), internal (for rapid healing), psychokinetic (for telepathy, clairvoyance, and telekinesis).


4. Layfon is inserted into the 17th platoon.  To help with expenses, he works at night cleaning and maintaining some machine works with Nina Antalk, who is also his platoon's leader.  Kalian's sister Felli is an adept at using psychokinetic kei, and Layfon has many interactions with her.


5. Over the course of the series 24 episodes, Layfon and Nina get to know one another; Felli and Layfon do as well.  The 17th platoon gains status as Layfon merges into the team and starts to show his talents.  The Contaminoids wreak all sorts of destruction, including killing every human in one of the Regios.  Extermination of a city releases the  'electronic spirit' associated with the city; the spirit is then called a Fallen One.  The Fallen Ones create all sorts of destruction.


6. In Glendan, the Queen charges Leerin (Layfon's childhood friend from a common orphanage) to take a Heaven's Blade to Layfon.  Leerin is monumentally bad at doing this.


7. So...do the romances (Layfon and Felli, Layfon and Nina, Layfon and Leerin) get anywhere during the series?  Will the Fallen Ones be helped to find rest?  Will the Contaminoids destroy any more cities?  Will Layfon stay in Zuellni, or return to Glendan?


3. Conclusions
1. Link to episode by episode descriptions: episodes
2. Link to overview of series:  overview
3. One line summary: Swords and sorcery meet high technology on an alien planet.
4. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Art: 8/10 The episodes consistently look good.


2. Sound: 3/10 Oh, ouch! One needs to crank the sound up to hear the dialog, then return it close to mute to survive the music during the opening and closing credits and the mid-episode inter-titles.


3. Voice acting: 7/10 The voice performances for Layfon, Nina, Kalian, the Queen of Glendan, and the Queen's agents were rather good.  However, many of the lesser female characters had annoyingly screeching voice registers, and were hard to understand.  I recommend using subtitles, even if one has an English version playing.


4. Story: 6/10 There are several themes in the series that I did not refer to above, and at least two dozen named characters.  Some of the themes basically went nowhere, either because they were abandoned or because they were underdeveloped.  It also seemed to me that there were entirely too many characters.

20140309: Thriller Review--Pathology

Pathology

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2008, rated R, 94 minutes, thriller.  Aspect, 2.35
2. IMDB: 6.0/10.0 from 22,399 audience ratings.  Estimated budget: 8 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 43% on the meter; 40% liked it from 49,178 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.3/5.0 from 160,875 audience ratings. 
5. Directed by: Marc Scholermann.
6. Starring:  Milo Ventimiglia as Ted Grey, Michael Weston as Jake Gallo, Alyssa Milano as Gwen Williamson, Lauren Lee Smith as Juliet Bath, John de Lancie as Dr. Quentin Morris, Johnny Whitworth as Griffin Cavenaugh.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Ted Grey arrives at University Hospital in Philadelphia as an intern.


2. This piece of drudgery starts with hand-held footage of entitled idiots re-enacting the fake orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally.  The stars of the re-make are cadavers.  Funny?  No.  Indicative of character?  Perhaps.


3. At an early group evening at a watering hole, the group starts talking about killing people.  Which people would one be willing to kill? They are especially interested in Ted's answer.  Soon thereafter, Jake takes Ted to the sickest depiction of a whorehouse that I've seen in a long time.


4. The next day or so, the exemplar cadaver was the bouncer at the whorehouse.  Ted is shocked.  He swallows his extra knowledge, and comes up with a correct diagnosis of how the murder was committed.  He does not figure out that this fellow interns killed the man.  Jake was surprised that he did not figure that part out.  Ted has his suspicions, of course.


5. With very little nudging (OK, some extortion involved), Ted joins the group.  He kills his first.  He participates in the post mortems where the group tries to guess the method of murder.  He does cocaine with his group.  This is still seems abrupt.


6. In any case, Ted's in harness.  How does this group of happy-go-lucky murderers end up?  Will the joy of sex after murder fade?  Do the police get involved?  Are there any responsible, observant adults running the hospital?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Interns repeatedly attempt to commit the perfect murder.
2. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 6/10 Well shot considering the overall darkness of the film, which is too dark.


2. Sound: 5/10 I can usually hear the actors' voices, but sound is not really an asset in this film.


3. Acting: 3/10 Milo Ventimiglia was wretched in Gilmore Girls; I expected nonsense and got a bland who-cares performance in this film.  Based on his track record, I expected nothing good from Michael Weston, and found him more irritating than usual.  Alyssa Milano has the longest record of disappointing performances, but here I saw a short performance that was not bad.  I expect to see at least a few minutes of good delivery and dry wit when John de Lancie is a film; that worked well.  Johnny Whitworth's performance was purely repulsive: an overreaching bully whose challenges are never met.  How did this law-of-the-jungle lout ever get into medical school?  His antics in CSI: Miami were not much better.


4. Screenplay: 4/10 In the first ten minutes of the film, Ted seems to be a bright, hard working, decent lad who deserves to be well-recommended.  His rapid descent into drug use and serial murder conspiracy seemed unfounded.  The autopsy of Gwen by Ted was unlikely; it would seem to me that his doing it would be prevented by protocols.  I suppose it was done for the full frontal female nudity. Also, the extracted heart seemed awfully large for a slim woman in good health.  This film reminded me of Lord of the Flies, only the adults never show up.

20140308: Drama Review--Savage Grace

Savage Grace

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Spanish live action feature length film, 2007, NR, 97 minutes, drama, crime.  Spoken word is in English.
2. IMDB: 5.9/10.0 from 7,009 audience ratings.  Estimated budget: 4.6 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 38% on the meter; 39% liked it from 12,563 audience ratings.
4. Amazon Prime:  2.6/5.0 from 320 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Tom Kalin, screenplay by Howard A. Rodman.
6. Starring: Julianne Moore as Barbara Baekeland, Stephen Dillane as Brooks Baekeland, Eddie Redmayne as Tony Baekeland, Hugh Dancy as Sam Greene, Elena Anaya as Blanca, Unax Ugalde as Black Jake, Anne Reid as Nini Daly.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The picture was made by adapting a biography about the death of Barbara Baekeland. Barbara rose into wealth and social status by marrying Brooks Baekeland, the heir to the bakelite plastics fortune.  The period under consideration is circa 1946, and the birth of Tony, to 1972 and the death of Barbara.  The film is about stormy relationships: Tony and Barbara, Barbara and Brooks, Barbara and whomever she was intimate with.


2. The action of the film comes in islands.  The first island is around 1946 when Tony was born.  We get to know Barbara and Brooks: she is skilled at maintaining and growing social networks in the upper class; he is an accomplished explorer, adventurer, and linguist. The next island is in 1959 in Spain.  Tony is 13, has some skill in languages, and enjoys long, detailed conversations with Barbara.  Barbara continues to spend time and energy on affairs.  The parents find out that Tony has gay leanings.  In 1967, Tony is tall, skinny, skilled at the guitar.  He and his father talk a bit more clearly than usual, the main subject being Barbara and women in general.  Soon he meets Blanca, and not long thereafter spends a night with her.  Barbara tells her later that she thought he was delivering Blanca rather like a cat delivers a bird to its owner.


3. In 1968, Brooks and Blanca decide to go somewhere together.  Barbara catches up with them, and makes a very public scene.  Tony and Jake get 'caught' by Barbara when she gets back from the airport.  About this time, Sam enters the movie as a 'walker,' a homosexual man who escorts a married woman while her husband is away.  How could this get more volatile?


4. The setup for a bad ending is well established.  As time goes forward to 1972 in London, the family dynamics get even worse.   Just how do we get to the sad conclusion?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Difficult biography set to the screen; not for the faint of heart.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Beautifully shot: interiors, exteriors, day, or night.


2. Sound: 9/10 Very few problems.  The background music might have been more effective.


3. Acting: 7/10 I liked Stephen Dillane, Eddie Redmayne, and Hugh Dancy.  I did not care so much for Elena Anaya, Unax Ugalde, or Julianne Moore (yes, she's considered an untouchable tin god, but I think other actresses could have done as well or better here).


4. Screenplay: 8/10 I could have used more exposition.

20140304: Horror Review--Hellraiser 9 2011

Hellraiser IX: Revelations

1. Production Fundamentals; Reception
1. American live action feature length film, 2011, rated R, 75 minutes, horror, supernatural.
2. IMDB: 2.8/10.0 from 3,196 audience ratings. Estimated budget: 350,000 USD.  Spoken word is in English.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No score yet,' 5% liked it from 615 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.9/5.0 from 161,216 audience ratings.
5. Directed by Victor Garcia; screenplay by Gary J. Tunnicliffe.
6. Starring:  Tracey Fairaway as Emma Craven, Nick Eversman as Steven Craven, Steven Brand as Dr. Ross Craven, Devon Sorvari as Sarah Craven, Sebastien Roberts as Peter Bradley, Ross Gillespie as Nico Bradley, Sanny van Heteren as Kate Bradley, Stephan Smith Collins as Pinhead. 


2. Setup, Plot
1. Filmed in LA, supposedly takes place in Mexico.  Right.  Smallest budget of the nine films.  The six year gap between HR 8 and HR 9 comes from the Weinstein company Miramax losing rights to the series and Puzzlebox Films picking up the rights.  The film was shot on a short schedule, and Doug Bradley did not return to reprise his role as Pinhead.


2. Nico and Steven bid farewell to Los Angeles on their way to Tijuana, MX.  Their aims are to get wasted or connect with sex workers.  We jump to Tijuana.  Nico is fooling about with a puzzle cube.  He succeeds in opening it.  Pinhead and two cenobites appear.


3. The Cravens and the Bradleys (parents of the doomed idiots, Steven and Nico) get together to have an evening together.  Emma is upset that no one talks about the sons, since Steven was her brother and Nico was her boyfriend.  She wonders why her mother spends time in Steven's room watching the tape the boys made over and over again.  Peter supports her in wanting to discuss it.


4. After a time, Emma watches some of the video, and starts playing with the puzzle cube.  The level of anxiety rises when this is revealed.  The anxiety ratchets up when Steven returns.  When they try to call 911, they find that their telephones are not working.  They decide to transport Steven, but their vehicles go missing.  It just keeps getting better.


5. As 'Steven' recovers a bit, secrets come out, many of them quite nasty, and blood starts to flow.  Will anyone get out of this alive?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Easily the worst of the nine films in the series.
2. One star of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 Shaky cam, minus 4 points, immediately.  Terrible contrast, terrible framing, terrible focus.  Some of the film looks OK.


2. Sound: 4/10 Not very effective.


3. Acting: 0/10 Stephan Smith Collins is a terrible replacement for Doug Bradley as Pinhead. Whoever wrote Pinhead's lines was even worse.  From the beginning, the dialog is very bad.  A young woman playing a Mexican native speaks Spanish with a very American accent.  I did not like the performance of any of the actors.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 Bad dialog to go with the wretched acting.  There is a story of sorts, but it develops slowly, and still seems muddled at the end.  The fractured time lines did not help all that much.


5. SFX: 2/10 Poor compared to the earlier films, even though this one was released in 2011.  The credits ran long, still mention the Weinsteins, and had better production values than the rest of the film.

20140304: Horror Review--Hellraiser 8 2005

Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005)

1. Production Fundamentals; Reception
1. American/Romanian live action feature length film, 2005, rated R, 89 minutes, horror, gore.
2. IMDB: 4.2/10.0 from 5,165 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 5 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 20% on the meter; 24% liked it from 17,470 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.2/5.0 from 326,738 audience ratings.
5. Directed by Rick Bota, screenplay by Joel Soisson and Carl V. DuPre.
6. Starring: Doug Bradley as Pinhead, Lance Henriksen as The Host, Katheryn Winnick as Chelsea, Henry Cavill as Mike, Christopher Jacot as Jake, Khary Payton as Derrick, Anna Tolputt as Allison, Victor McGuire as first policeman, Stelian Urian as Adam.


2. Setup, Plot
1. The picture begins in the Roman Catholic setting: nuns, so-so sculpture, churches, services for the dead, dreary music, and stained glass windows.  Coincident and discordant with that, we have young adults (well, children in adult bodies) who look all correct in their level of solemnity, which they will soon enough chuck off as just another aspect of their hypocrisy.  These are the folk headed for the grinder.


2. The protagonist group (Chelsea, Mike, Allison, Derrick, Jake, Adam) were all addicted to the MMORPG video game 'Hellworld,' and have come to the funeral of Adam.  Adam apparently committed suicide after a period of instability.  Jake is a bit stand-offish at the funeral because he thought the other four spent too much time at the game while Adam was in trouble.


3. If the titles are to be believed, two years go by.  The sub-group (Chelsea, Mike, Allison, Derrick) get tickets to the 5th annual secret Hellworld party at a large semi-secluded mansion. They meet Jake there, somewhat to their surprise.


4. Since they are first time party attendees, The Host shows them around his collection of Hellworld memorabilia.  All of them are quite impressed. The building is called Leviathan House, and supposedly was designed by Phillip Lemarchand. The house was originally a nunnery until 80 nuns went missing.  Then it became a house for the criminally insane, and developed a history of paranormal violence.  The staff took a bit of a wrong turn when they all took local anesthetics and proceeded to dismember each other.


5. Chelsea shows open skepticism to The Host.  He shows her a powerful hallucination in which he introduces himself as Pinhead.  All this is shrugged off, and they go to the party for getting drunk with masks on.


6. After that, we get down to divide and conquer.  The protagonists have some rather bad experiences, and the elimination derby is on.


7. Allison walks into a room marked 'Keep out.'  She should have done that.  Chelsea thinks she sees Adam, and pursues.  Jake goes exploring too, and meets Pinhead.  Then he notices that no one acknowledges him, except someone who has been dead for years.  Derrick goes looking for love, but needs his inhaler.  He just cannot get to it on the dance floor, and has to search hard to find it.  Mike finds a young woman who gives him some physical attention. Chelsea calls him, but he cannot be bothered.  Then his hallucinations start.


8. Chelsea stays a bit aloof, and resists the goings-on the best.  Will she survive the party?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Grieving father plays elimination derby with Hellworld gamers.
2. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 A lot of VHS quality, which is disappointing.  Then again, this picture was straight-to-video.


2. Sound: 4/10 Music by Lars Anderson was not effective.


3. Acting: 3/10 Lance Henriksen seemed a touch not involved, but still delivered his lines professionally. Doug Bradley was good, as usual, in his short role.  The other actors just sucked rocks.  This definitely includes Henry Cavill, who later played Superman in Man of Steel (2013).


4. Screenplay: 4/10 There is some very terrible dialog, followed by more. "Like a bad horror movie, isn't it?" The Host asked Chelsea.  Motivations were often unclear.  The story seemed merely an elimination derby for twenty somethings with a Hellraiser setting.  The double reverse at the end was moderately interesting, and was the basic reason for 2/5 instead of 1/5.


5. SFX: 4/10 Not many SFX, and none of them were all that interesting.

20140303: Horror Review--Hellraiser 7 2004

Hellraiser: Deader

1. Production Fundamentals; Reception
1. American/Romanian live action feature length film, 2004, rated R, 88 minutes, horror. Spoken word is in English.
2. IMDB: 4.6/10.0 from 4,897 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 4 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 17% on the meter; 24% liked it from 13,474 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.2/5.0 from 220,241 audience ratings.
5. Directed by Rick Bota.
6. Starring: Doug Bradley as Pinhead, Kari Wuhrer as Amy Klein, Paul Rhys as Winter, Simon Kunz as Charles Richmond, Marc Warren as Joey, Georgina Raylance as Marla.


2. Setup, Plot
1. The picture starts out in a large, run down flat in London which contains several abusers of alcohol and drugs.  The mostly blocked daylight slowly stimulates wakening.  Amy takes a few last snaps, and turns off her sound recorder.  She leaves to go to the offices of a publication, 'London Underground'...after some considerable cleanup, that is.  When she goes to meet her boss, Charles Richmond, the scent of patchouli oil precedes her. Amy and Charles have known each other for quite some time.  Charles shows her a tape about 'deaders,' then gives her a new assignment concerning the accuracy of the tape.


2. The tape has what at first seems to be a snuff film.  A young woman shoots herself in the head with a heavy pistol.  She seems quite dead.  Winter, the leader of the forsaken-looking 'youth' that watched the head shot gives her mouth-to-mouth and the stricken woman revives.


3. The envelope containing the tape had a return address.  Charles sends Amy to Bucharest, Romania, where all the 'cool' Euro trash go for thrills.  ('Amsterdam is so 90s.')  Amy finds the return address in Bucharest.  She finds the exact flat, discovers a body dead by suicide, a scrapbook of disturbing photographs, a puzzle cube, next steps to investigate, and a plea for help.  Later, when she is in private, she runs her hands over the puzzle cube, and gets her first (hallucinatory) encounter with Pinhead after opening it partially.  She keeps looking, then runs afoul of the local gendarmes.  Charles bails her out, then exhorts her to keep after the story, again back in Bucharest.


4. When she continues the investigation, her hallucinations get much worse.  She manages to witness the act of 'resurrection.'  She has her first chilling conversation with Winter, and gives him the puzzle cube.  Winter claims he is trying to recover his inheritance.  He attempts to recruit her in his war against Pinhead since she can open the puzzle cube.


5. Pinhead, on the other hand, sees Winter (a descendant of the puzzle box's creator) as an interloper in his domain.  Pinhead exhorts Amy to help him against Winter, since Pinhead is her only way out of her current mess.


6. Can Amy find her way back to stability and reality in this metaphysical war?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Amy investigates the war between Pinhead and Winter, plus her own demons.
2. Eight of ten.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 9/10 Well shot in daylight and in the dim night scenes.


2. Sound: 10/10 Strong and effective.


3. Acting: 10/10 This is, hands down, the best performance I've ever seen from Kari Wuhrer. Simon Kunz, Paul Rhys, Marc Warren, Georgina Raylance, and Doug Bradley were all quite good.


4. Screenplay: 7/10 A little weak on exposition, but not by much.  On the whole, well-told.


5. SFX: 8/10 Best in the series so far.

20140303: Horror Review--Hellraiser 6 2002

Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Canadian live action feature length film, 2002, rated R, 89 minutes, horror.
2. IMDB: 5.1/10.0 from 6,078 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 3 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 0% on the meter; 36% liked it from 16,265 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.3/5.0 from 227,240 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Rick Bota, screenplay by Tim Day and Carl V. DuPre.
6. Starring: Dean Winters as Trevor Gooden, Ashley Laurence as Kirsty Cotton Gooden, Doug Bradley as Pinhead/Merchant, Rachel Hayward as Allison.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Husband Trevor and wife Kirsty are traveling along in a Volvo, having a lively conversation, then a lengthy kiss.  Unfortunately, neither of them was looking at the road ahead of them.  They run off the road into a small river.  Trevor gets out.  Kirsty gets free of her seatbelt, but the door that Trevor opened wide for her mysteriously closes.  Trevor wakes in hospital later, but Kirsty did not make it back with him.


2. Trevor returns to work and gets a barrage of questions rather than any sympathy at all.  His female boss expects Trevor to return to his habit of servicing her.  She and his coworkers remind him that they are always being recorded.


3. Kirsty's body is not found.  Eventually the police investigation contacts Trevor, and he has some explaining to do. Trevor continues his wayward ways, and the hallucinations start.  He seeks help from psychiatry and from acupuncture.  However, both of his caregivers turn out to be self-delusions.  Or were they?  The film takes a few turns on that point.


4. Things get much worse for Trevor, but do they ever get better?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Follows another tortured conscience doing a bad job of dealing with its past.
2. Five of ten.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 Fuzzy, VHS quality over Netflix.


2. Sound: 7/10 The score is somewhat helpful in setting a creepy tone, and accentuating painful moments.


3. Acting: 5/10 Dean Winters is a more or less serviceable supporting actor on television, but has no business being the lead in a feature film.  The supporting players were not all that memorable.  It was nice to see a more mature Ashley Laurence in a short but nice performance.


4. Screenplay: 5/10 The story for this film is reminiscent of HR5, in that it seems to be about the tortured conscience of one particular wrong doer. It is on the simple side, so the quality depends on the execution, and the acting was not all that good.  Pinhead in this film is just a prop, not really an essential character. This film has clearly lost the mission, and should call itself something else.

20140302: Horror Review--Hellraiser 5 2000

Hellraiser V: Inferno

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2000, rated R, 99 minutes, horror.
2. IMDB: 5.6/10.0 from 8,307 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 2 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No scores yet,' and 'No score yet' from audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.3/5.0 from 221,998 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Kevin Yagher, screenplay by Peter Atkins.
6. Starring: Craig Sheffer as Det Joseph Thorne, Nicolas Turturro as Det Tony Nenonen, James Remar as Dr. Paul Gregory, Noelle Evans as Melanie Thorne, Doug Bradley as Pinhead, Nicholas Sadler as Bernie, Carmen Argenziano as the Captain.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Det Thorne is a hypocritical cop.   He has a wife and child and an above board appearance, but also consorts with hookers and beats the crap out of 'suspects' or whoever bothers him.  He finds a puzzle cube in the course of his investigations.  Then the dreams start, and he finds the latest hooker he has been with dead in the shower in the place where they last met.


2. He enlists (with a bit of blackmail) his straight-shooting partner Det Nenonen to help him cover up the hooker's murder.  The two of them descend deeper and deeper into the seedier side of life in Denver.  After one of his confidential informants is killed, Thorne receives a tape showing the CI being killed by a cenobite.  When he shows the tape to his boss, his partner, and a tech specialist, the content is gone.  Ouch.  They investigate the scene, and everything is as Thorne described it from the tape.


3. Since Thorne cannot substantiate his sightings of the cenobites, his boss recommends that he spend time with a shrink, Dr Gregory.  The shrink turns out to be Pinhead in disguise.  His wife starts to object to his unexplained lengthy absences.


4. How well does Thorne deal with his demons?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary:  The series returns to 'take responsibility for your own actions,' Twilight Zone style.
2. Seven of ten.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Good-looking film until that jumpy nonsense towards the end.


2. Sound: 6/10 Nothing special.  Sound was not all that important to the film, which could have been quite an asset.


3. Acting: 8/10 Nicholas Turturro is as bad as ever.  Craig Sheffer gave one of his better performances.  James Remar and Carmen Argenziano gave their usual competent plus performances.  Doug Bradley was quite good as expected.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 Not nearly as complex as HR4, but tremendously better executed.


5. SFX: 9/10 The SFX are much better in HR5.  Most of them concern Thorne's hallucinations, and most of them are rather good.

20140301: Horror Review--Hellraiser 4 1996

Hellraiser IV: Bloodline

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 1996, rated R, 84 minutes, horror.
2. IMDB: 5.0/10.0 from 11,172 audience ratings. Estimated budget: 4 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 25% on the meter; 38% liked it from 34,682 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.3/5.0 from 430,893 audience ratings.
5. Directed by Kevin Yagher, then Joe Chappelle; screenplay by Peter Atkins.
6. Starring: Bruce Ramsay as Phillip l'Merchant/John Merchant/Dr. Paul Merchant; Valentina Vargas as Angelique/Peasant Girl; Doug Bradley as Pinhead, Charlotte Chatton as Genevieve l'Merchant, Adam Scott as Jacques, Mickey Cottrelle as Duc de l'Isle.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The film opens on 'Space Station Minos, 2127' which is quite a shift from HR3, made in 1992. There is a single male adult on the station before it is boarded by armed, uniformed troops. The man attempts to manipulate a puzzle cube remotely.  This does not go as expected.


2. The man is Dr. Merchant, who designed the station for a company.  The boarding party is from his company.  They are attempting to figure out what is going on, and then to restore the profitability of the station.  They imprison the doctor, then interrogate him.


3. So, we start an ongoing set of pieces of flashback to some 400 years previous.  Dr. Merchant's ancestor, Phillip le Merchant, after occult studies, constructed the first of the puzzle cubes that opened a passage to the cenobites to Earth.  In 2127, Dr. Merchant was attempting to finish the process of closing that passage.  Of course, the boarding party did not help.


4. Phillip sells the cube to the Duc de l'Isle, an evil minded magician.  The duke uses it in a number of bloody rituals conducted by him and Jacques over the murdered and dismembered body of a peasant girl.  The rituals raise a demon. The duke is stupid enough to think he can command the demon, whom he names Angelique.


5. Phillip tries to get some support for stopping the duke, but the 18th century is in the Age of Reason, so no one really believes him.  Still, one of this friends tells him to design a mechanism that will close the doors to the demons.  Phillip sets about to do this.


6. Phillip clearly failed in his own time.  Angelique meets Phillip's descendant John in the 20th century.  He is a famous architect, whom Angelique hopes to recruit.  Evidently John failed as well.  Will Dr. Merchant succeed in 2127?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: The Merchant family tries to close the doors to Pinhead and company.
2. Two stars of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Dark, a bit fuzzy, but mostly OK.  I could do without the almost mono-colour palettes.


2. Sound: 5/10 Music composed by Daniel Licht, the credits say.  Sound overall was not that effective.


3. Acting: 3/10 Bruce Ramsay was the lead, I suppose.  Unfortunately, his acting was beneath poor.  Doug Bradley and Mickey Cottrelle were reasonably good, but the bit players were terrible. Valentina Vargas was marginal.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 So we have artificial gravity in 2127?  Sounds great.  The jumps are many and not helpful among the 18th, 20th, and 22nd centuries.  Changing directors in mid-stream due to the interference of the producers did not help.  There might have been a coherent idea here at one time.  The final product was way too muddled with threads that go nowhere.


5. SFX: 4/10 There were lots of CGI (computer generated images), but few of them were well done.  The film had plenty of blood and ripped flesh for the gore hounds.  The worst FX was the stupid lipstick on John and Paul Merchant.

20140301: Horror Review--Hellraiser 3 1992

Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American/Canadian live action feature length film, 1992, rated R, 93 minutes, horror.
2. IMDB: 5.4/10.0 from 15,577 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 17% on the meter; 37% liked it from 42,132 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.3/5.0 from 357,893 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Anthony Hickox, screenplay by Peter Atkins, story by Peter Atkins and Tony Randel, characters by Clive Barker.
6. Starring: Doug Bradley as Pinhead/Captain Elliot Spencer, Terry Farrell as Joanne (Joey) Summerhill, Ashley Laurence as Kirsty Cotton, Kevin Bernhardt as J. P. Monroe, Paula Marshall as Terri, Ken Carpenter as Daniel (Doc) Fisher/Camerahead Cenobite, Peter Atkins as Rick the Barman/Barbie the Cenobite.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Rich and entitled JP mistakes one of the pillars of souls (which includes a puzzle cube) as a work of art, and purchases it.  Clever lad.


2. Joey is a junior reporter who is discouraged that she is not getting good stories to cover.  Then she witnesses a man being destroyed by what looks like a cenobite attack.  So who would believe her?  Her only clue is Terri, who might be one of JP's girl friends.  Terri kept the cube that the dead man broke out of the pillar of souls that JP bought.


3. JP gets bit by a rat hiding in the hold in the pillar of souls.  His blood is absorbed by the Pinhead part of the sculpture.


4. Terri welcomes Joey's interest in the case, and helps her dig into the artworld and nightlife that JP inhabits.  They find a connection to the Channard institute from the second film.


5. While JP entertains a new girl he's picked up, Pinhead shows signs of waking up. The next morning, Pinhead absorbs the girlfriend into the pillar of souls, and Pinhead becomes able to talk to JP about their mutual interests.  JP is repelled and quite curious at the same time.  He tries to lure Terri back to get further along in the game with Pinhead.  She decides to return to the familiar, in spite of everything.  JP tries to feed her to Pinhead, but Terri turns the tables on him.


6. Pinhead's human side contacts Joey via television (hokey moment there) asking for help.


7. How does Terri do against the resurrected cenobite Pinhead?  Will Joey get any traction helping the human side of Pinhead?  Will the open doorway for the cenobites be closed again?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Failure in the writing; most of the thrill was gone.
2. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 Netflix, oi.  Netflix streamed this film in 1.33 aspect, despite the fact that the film was shot in 1.85.  This means visual information was literally cut off.


2. Sound: 8/10 Music was composed for the film by Randy Miller, plus music from a number of rock acts was included.  Some of the club scene 'live' music was pretty good.


3. Acting: 4/10 I liked Terry Farrell as Jadzia Dax in Star Trek: DS9, but not so much here.  To make  it worse, the movie made a poor attempt to convert the actress into being a blonde.  Doug Bradley was fine as usual.  Paula Marshall I could have done without.  Kevin Bernhardt showed all the talent of a bad high school actor.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 The character Terri could knock out JP with one short jab?  Give me a break.  There's a whole lot less here in terms of story and motivation than in the first two. The feeling of suspense, menace, and what-happens-next was considerably less.  The carnage at the club was less affecting than the more personal horrors in the first and second films.


5. SFX: 3/10 Very little special here.  Explosions for the sake of explosions is just the opposite of convincing.  Some of the special FX were just stop action with very few stops.

20140301: Horror Review--Hellraiser 2 1988

Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (1988)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. British live action feature length film, 1988, rated R, 93 minutes, horror.
2. IMDB: 6.5/10.0 from 23,135 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 50% on the meter; 60% liked it from 47,959 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.4/5.0 from 632,029 audience ratings.
5. Directed by Tony Randel, screenplay by Peter Atkins, story by Clive Barker.
6. Starring: Clare Higgins as Julia Cotton, Ashley Laurence as Kirsty Cotton, Kenneth Cranhum as Dr. Philip Channard/Channard Cenobite, Imogen Boorman as Tiffany, Sean Chapman as Uncle Frank Cotton, William Hope as Dr. Kyle MacRae, Doug Bradley as Pinhead/Captain Elliot Spencer.


2. Setup and Plot
1. We start HR II more or less the next day after HR I ended.


2. Kirsty is in a mental hospital after escaping the cenobites and failing to destroy the puzzle cube.  The multiple murder investigation continues at her late father's house.  Dr. Channard has custody (more or less) of Kirsty, who is not doing much at first to secure her independence from authorities.


3. Meanwhile, the cube has found its way to another person.  One needs to watch to the end to see this part explained.


4. At the hospital, Dr. Channard actually listens to Kirsty's involved tale about Frank, Julia, Larry, and the cenobites.  Dr. Channard has a great deal of knowledge about the puzzle cubes (plural) and occult matters in general.  He keeps his arcana at his house.


5. Perhaps even worse, the doctor uses his patients as experimental animals.  One of his basement efforts draws a lot of blood, which brings back Julia.  Judging from the first film, the cenobites will not be far behind.  Kyle observes this since he was snooping in the Channard's private lab, and hid himself before the doc and the unfortunate patient came in.


6. Julia practices her whiles on Dr. Channard after he takes her home, and lets him know that all she needs is skin.  Julia gets her desired skin from other doomed patients that he brings to her.


7. Meanwhile, Kyle springs Kirsty from the mental institution, since he now thinks that her story was blow-by-blow true. Kyle takes her to Channard's house, where she pores over his documents and objects.  Unfortunately, Kyle meets a fully recovered Julia, and the end of his life.


8. Channard employs the mute patient Tiffany to solve one of the puzzle boxes.  Sure enough, the cenobites are summoned.


9. Will Channard and Julia survive?  How about Kirsty and Tiffany?  Will Kirsty find Larry while the paths between worlds are still open?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Almost as good as the first, but quite different.
2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 9/10 Better than the original, at least what I saw streamed on Netflix.  This one had the correct aspect ratio, and was consistently better filmed.


2. Sound: 5/10 Not as good.  There was no original score for this one, and the sound was not an effective part of the film.


3. Acting: 8/10 Clare Higgins was my favourite in this film.  Sean Chapman was again good as Frank Cotton.  Kenneth Cranhum was fine as Dr. Channard.  Ashley Laurence had better lines, and gave a better performance than in the first film.


4. Screenplay: 5/10 The maze of the cenobites was murky and unclear, rather like playing a game where the rules are enforced, but not published.  The influence of gaming gets even worse in some of the later sequels.  The front end of the film could have used more careful exposition, but it did move right along.