Friday, December 31, 2010

Stay inside (2005)

This is another social statement about the dark future politicians preparing for us.
It is filmed by the talented Greek director Stathis Athanasiou.
The story emerges between science fiction and social drama as violence rules over civilization and people are advised to stay in their houses and call for products in order to survive from anarchists who kill them and destroy everything.
Total death of capitalism in the isolated environment of every customer.
A very interesting gem!

Juyuso seubgyuksageun aka Attack the Gas Station! (1999)

Another great film from Korea that I really enjoyed it.
Four talented boys are the members of a fearless gang who attack on a gas station just for fun.
They kidnap the stuff, the boss and various customers and they fight with local gangs.
They also succeed to fool the caps who are interested more to catch a race driver.
As no one can beat them more and more people are their target and a bizarre game between illegality and youth rage of lost dreams begins.
This film is a social commentary directed in an interesting way.


Monday, December 27, 2010

Bad Guy (2001)

Korean director Ki-duk Kim was always one for me to remember.
This is a film I saw a few years ago and this time the impact is much stronger.
The story is about a young girl who is kidnapped by a gang of pimps and their leader, a strange fearless man is in love with her but in a bizarre way.
Another member of this gang falls in love with her and the third person of the company is a loyal partner to the leader.
So after several incidents, the violent life of this community will be changed for ever.
Enemies and friends will change positions and the fate of the miserable girl will be difficult.
Excellent photography and soundtrack for a  hard to see movie!

Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)

Shilo is a genetically ill teenager locked in her house for life as her doctor father Nathan is keeping a dark secret about her mother.
Rotti Largo who shares the same secret, is the greedy and arrogant owner of GeneCo, a biotech company that offers organ transplants.
He thinks he is god but hates his children who are totally freaks.
He is caring only for business and when his customers miss their payments he sends the Repo Man, a vicious killer who eliminate them and take back their implants.
Soon the secrets will be exposed and lives of Shilo, Nathan and Rotti will be involved into the wildly anticipated spectacular event: The Genetic Opera with the worst sequences.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

AM1200 (2008)

When the analyst Sam Larson is getting in trouble with his business he chooses to run away.
He thinks he is the reason that his friend and colleague committed suicide.
Driving for hours in the highway he will soon be terrified that he will be captured by the police.
So when he will choose a wrong turn on the main road he will be driven to nowhere in the woods.
And he will find an isolated radio broadcast building where the terror begins.
One of the best horror short films I ever seen!
R.E.C.O.M.M.E.N.D.E.D

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom aka The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008)

This is an amazing Korean style western. 
Three desperate gunslingers are in Manchuria.
Do-wan, an untouchable bounty hunter, Chang-yi, a heartless assassin, and Tae-goo, a train robber with nine lives. 
They will all meet at a train robbery where Tae-goo finds a treasure map while Chang-Yi was looking for the same thing and Do-wan was after them for a great reward.
Soon they will be hunted by various gangs and the Japanese army.
Each one wants the treasure for himself so a battle between them will soon start leading to a bloodbath.
With great scenes of action and a cool style direction this funny film from South Korea will entertain you a lot!

Friday, December 24, 2010

3 dev adam aka 3 Mighty Men aka Captain America and Santo vs. Spider-Man (1973)

Is he a hero or a looser? What about a useless Spiderman who is the leader of a smugglers gang?
He can't shoot webs anymore or climb up anywhere. And he is always beaten up.
From who?
From Captain America (yeah you heard it - Captain America in Turkey!!) and the legendary masked wrestler from Mexico, Santo.
Spidey's mobs are based in Istanbul stealing treasures from rich families.
The police can't arrest them so they call in help of the two heroes.
They will find out Spidey's secret location and a battle to death will start.
Thrilling costumes and a simple plot with extremely funny fighting scenes will keep you entertained till you drop laughing.


Thursday, December 23, 2010

2081 (2009)

Based on a Kurt Vonnegut's novel this short film is about the dark future of civilization in the United States.
The laws have changed everything and people live into a dystopian future.
Because everyone is ''finally equal''. But is the the right solution for the man kind?
Can human rights change and what is the price?
The strong wear weights, the beautiful wear masks and the intelligent wear earpieces that fire off loud noises to keep them from taking unfair advantage of their brains.
It is a poetic tale of triumph and tragedy about a broken family, a brutal government, and an act of defiance that changes everything.
Including an excellent score performed by the famous band of Kronos Quartet.



Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Harvie Krumpet (2003)

The sad, strange life of Harvie, who is born into an impoverished Middle European existence, and whose one constant is the book of "fakts" he keeps adding to, worn around his neck.
After a childhood tragedy, he emigrates to Australia, where he has a succession of menial jobs, eventually ending up in a retirement home.
Along the way, he has a string of bad luck, leaving him with, among other things, a steel plate in his skull that becomes a magnet.
This amazing stop-motion animation from Australia won the Oscar in 2003 and a lot of other awards.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Deu suay doo aka Raging Phoenix (2009)

Deu is used to be abandoned from everyone. First from her mother, then as a band member.
So she is hopeless. In the mean time a mysterious gang is abducting and killing women around Thailand.
Sanim and his friends, having had loved ones abducted, have joined together to break the gang of kidnappers.
When Due is going to be their next victim, Sanim will save her and help her by learning her the unique martial arts style that fuses traditional Muai Thai with breakdance moves.
Soon they will be friends and Due will get in the team in order to find the killers and seek for revenge.
A great action film from Thailand full of amazing battle shots.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

TRON: Legacy (2010)

As a lot of people maybe misunderstood this is NOT a remake of the cult 80s sci fi movie Tron but it's sequel directed in the best way it could be.
I loved so much this story back to the 80s so it was quite relaxing that this attempt to continue the story was successful.
Sam Flynn is Kevyn's Glynn (hero of the first Tron) son and a genius at computer science.
When his father disappeared twenty years ago without a sign, Sam was so desperate. He didn't want to have any relationship with his father and his company and tried to sabotage it by spreading its technology for free through internet.
When he will visit his dad old electronic games store he will find a secret place where the transportation to the cybernetic world of Tron starts.
Amazing visual effects and a plot better than the first movie give the film a great success to the point.
The French electronic producers Daft Punk do their best for the soundtrack that fits perfect to the whole film!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Los violadores aka Mad foxes (1981)

This movie is just a mess.
Hopefully it's the best trick if you wanna have some fun before sleeping.
It is about an arrogant rich man who changes women from time to time.
But a gang of bike riders are looking for trouble and he is the ideal person to mess with.
They first beat him up and rape his date.
When he exits the hospital he completely forgets about the girl and he continues the mess asking help for a friend who owns a karate club.
But I don't think the karate gang do the martial art justice. So they beat the bikers and their leader cuts the cock of the riders leader and feed him with it.
The rest of the riders are looking for revenge so they start killing everyone in order to find the rich man and eliminate him.
The protagonist has sex with other two girls afterwards and he visits his parents house.
But the bikers actually find him and kill all the members of his family including the servants.
After that he goes crazy, grabbing a shot gun and the massacre begins.
Who is going to survive?
The plot and the directing could be better but the actors are not talented at all.
The soundtrack is horrible and finally this is one of the films you wish to forget as soon as possible!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Robot Love from Another World (2008)

Is love mechanical?
Robot Love from Another World is a 50s-style Sci-Fi Comedy featuring Chicago sketch comedy troupe OneTwoThree.

Na srebrnym globie aka On the silver globe (1988)

Maybe you need to watch this extraordinary film twice to understand completely the vision of Ukrainian director Andrzej Zulawski.
It is a film that Polish government banned and Zulawski never recreated it back at its original form.
It is based on the adaptation of "The Lunar Trilogy" written by the directors Uncle Jerry Żuławski between 1901 and 1911 (never published in English but popular in Europe).
In the beginning we find two astronauts being in a ruined palace where primitive humanoids surround them with curiosity.
One of them has found a strange old device which shows the voyage of an earlier space flight to the planet crushing over the mountains.
Half of the crew survived and the rest die one by one.
The astronaut woman is already pregnant and she will bring her first child on a new world.
More children come in life but because the astronauts are getting older at a much slower rate, they become Godlike elders of the newly emerging (from incest) humans.
The second generation grows a new civilization based on Shamanism. The last astronaut named Old man is going to travel back to his comrades death spots and find the meaning of life.
When he will be back things will have been changed.
So the device keeps narrating the story of the past natives to the two astronauts.
Then we watch the second story.
When a new spacecraft is landing on the planet a cosmic traveller from the future is being selected as the messiah by the natives who we come to realize are the descendants of the first mission.
The new Messiah indulges in his Godking status, and deals with the threat posed by winged telepathic creatures called Sherns who kidnap and mate with native women to produce...lizard men?
What follows is espionage, decadence, war, and delirious parade of fantastic and occasionally grotesque images.
This film is a brilliant visual poetry and an interesting anthropological concept with impressive sets and great make-up.
If you ever liked Kubrick's  2001: A Space Odyssey, this is the next stuff for your mind and your eyes!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Kusa-meikyu aka Grass Labyrinth (1983)

A young man, Akira has an obsession about a song his mother used to sing to him while he was a child.
He has a secret passion for the person who seems to be his mother.
But is she his real mother at all?
And what about the nympho who wants to share her feelings with him?
An obscure story where reality is between fantasy and surrealism.
Another work of underground director Shuji Terayama from the 80s.
If you like Luis Bunuel and Peter Greenaway this is your thing from Japan!



Monday, December 13, 2010

L'uomo meccanico aka The mechanical man (1921)

This sci fi film from Italy is one of the most rare in the world.
A Portuguese release version is discovered in Brazil but it was only the 40% of the film working.
The story is about a scientist creating device shaped like a man that can be remote-controlled by a machine.
The mechanical man possess super-human speed and strength. The scientist is killed however by a gang of criminals, led by a woman named Mado, who wish to get the instructions for building the mechanical man.
The criminals are captured before they are able to get them and are brought to trial and condemned. Mado manages to escape and kidnaps the scientist's niece whom she forces to give her the instructions which she uses to build a mechanical man.
The mechanical man is used for a variety of crimes, controlled by Mado. The scientist's brother however is successful in creating a second mechanical man which he uses to combat the original.
The two mechanical men fight each other in an opera house and end up destroying each other as well as the opera house. During the final battle, Mado frantically attempts to control the mechanical man and is electrocuted at the control panel by a short circuit.

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Kronos (1957)

Dr. Leslie Gaskell is leading a team of scientists who investigate and discover an asteroid which felt in the ocean.
During their examination in Mexico, Leslie's colleague John Emory is being possessed by an alien form who controls his mind.
This alien controls the giant robot machine who appears in the sea and starts destroying everything in order to find new power sources.
After the failure of the army to eliminate it, the robot affects more and more power from the stolen energy and become bigger and bigger.
The dialogue, littered with quasi-scientific jargon, flows at near poetic tempo and the acting is good.
This movie reflects the cold war tensions of the fifties and captures the history of that time period on film.
If you love black and white sci fi gems this is a must!

Friday, December 10, 2010

John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns (2005)

Kirby is an unsuccesful owner of a theater.
He lost his wife when she committed suicide at the period they were drug addicts.
He also owns his father in law a big loan of money.
When the weird collector of films Bellinger (Udo Kier enjoyable as always) employing him to find the most extreme film ever made he will accept the deal.
But ''Le Fin Absolue du Monde" is a cursed film and everyone who saw that is condemned dying a horrifying death.
Carpenter is one of the best horror directors and he proves it again!


Sl8n8 aka Slaughter Night (2006)

Kristel looses her father into a car accident.
Then she has to go to Belgium and get back some personal things of him and a manuscript he was working on a book about the infamous serial killer Andries Martiens from his office.
This insane maniac killed some children in order to open the gates of hell so he could visit his parents for a personal matter.
Kristel will find an Ouija board which connects her with her dad.
When his boss invites her to visit the mines her dad was working into, 
she and her company will be trapped into a cold, dark and damp place 
where the evil spirit of Martiens starts possessing them one by one and the massacre begins!
Very bloody effects, coupled with the guarantee gloomy, claustrophobic atmosphere of an old mine nerve-jangling excitement for fans of the genre.


Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Mo tai aka Devil Fetus (1983)

Shu Ching is buying a strange vase from a flea market.
When she returns back home she starts feeling a passion for it as a demon appears and rapes her into her subconscious.
When her husband enters he watches the weird situation and he breaks the vase.
But it sends the demon spirit on him and turns him into a walking corpse.
He will find a violent death falling outside from the window.
She will die too some days later falling from the stairs.
12 years are passing away and Shu's 2 nephews are growing up.
The demon spirit strikes again.
This is another funny production of Hong Kong cinema with horrible special effects!


Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Ovoce stromu rajských jíme aka Fruit of Paradise (1970)

Welcome to the fantastic world of Czech director Vera Chytilová.
You haven't taken pills and this is not a psychedelic film.
There are layers of image on top of image with fast camera cuts.
It's about the story of Adam and Eve into a modern and illustrated way.
They have fun at God's place until devil appears with the form of a middle aged man.
Devious as he is, he will try to put the evil ideas through them and separate the couple offering temptations at both of them.
The plot goes deep as it gets more and more surreal and philosophical.
It is an extraordinary movie lost in time because it was censored and banned by the Soviet/Czech government.
Another masterpiece of Czech cinema!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Shan kou aka The beasts (1980)

'The beasts' is directed by Dennis Yu, who has made also other films like Evil Cat.
A company of five young people decide to go for camping near an abandoned forest.
But a gang of weird guys will disappear their happiness while raping the one girl and killing her brother.
She will end up at a asylum loosing her mind.
Her father will find a tough way for payback.
The acting is convincing and the guy who plays Snake is truly creepy.
Another cool Hong Kong production with the 80s soundtrack incuding Police, Styx, Supertramp etc.


Thursday, December 2, 2010

Mirage (1990)


I was a kid while watching that slasher and it was an frightening experience.
I was looking to find it for many years so I finally did it.
The story is as simple as that.
Three teenagers couple want to spend some days on the desert having fun.
But their plans will be ruined by a maniac killer.
So the pursuit starts but where can anyone hide in the middle of nowhere?
It's a shame really that this flick is so forgotten because it's actually really good, the acting is well a mixed bag but the main girl Jennifer McAllister did a pretty good job and she was really stunning. 
An annoying aspect is that we don't get to find out why the killer is there or why he's killing everybody off, but he does play his part well.
A thrilling experience for the brain.



You can start watching it here:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFOxnHGfWr8

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Tie saam gok aka Triangle (2007)

An antiquary guy, a taxi driver and a betrayed husband are looking for a mysterious treasure following the instructions of a bizarre man at a bar.
After finding that, their lives will change dramatically and they will get in troubles.
A gang is after the taxi driver who is a snitch and plans to grab the treasure with the help of a cop. The cop has a secret relationship with the woman of the other guy of the triangle so things will be more complicated.
The plot is sometimes confusing but the actors do their best and the characters have many choices.
Directed by 3 people this story is really entertaining and keeps intense high.