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| I SMELL MEATY TREATS!!! |
Howdy, folks!
Since we’re kicking off the October Horror Movie Challenge and SCARE-A-THON 2019 in a matter of hours and (par for the course) I am not caught up, these will have to serve as placeholders for the time being until I get around to giving the films below their proper due.
Because I definitely have a few more things to say about them.
As always, feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back.
Enjoy!
HORROR:
Cujo (1983) d. Teague, Lewis (USA) (3rd viewing)
1983 was a solid year for faithful and worthy Stephen King adaptations, with The Dead Zone, Christine, and this hitting screens. I have to say, I’m always impressed by how well this one works considering relatively contained central conceit of a mother (Dee Wallace) and her son (Danny Pintauro) trapped in a Ford Pinto with a rabid and slavering St. Bernard outside trying to eat them. The entire cast (including the five different canines used to play the titular terror) ranges from rock solid to excellent, and Jan de Bont’s energetic camerawork keeps the tension alive. Only Charles Bernstein’s score feels a little by numbers, with cues ranging from whimsical to strident. Strangely enough, screenwriters Don Carlos Dunaway and Lauren Currier did not seem to benefit much from their participation here, which is too bad since it’s a genuinely fine realization of King’s novel.
Ringu (1998) d. Nakata, Hideo (Japan) (3rd viewing)
The one that kicked off the J-horror craze of the early 2000s, thanks to its disturbing imagery and good fortune of being picked up by a couple of Dreamworks execs who decided to remake it.
The Ring (2002) d. Verbinski, Gore (USA) (2nd viewing)
The remake that kicked off the J-horror craze (as well as Hollywood’s J-horror remake craze) of the early 2000s. While a solid enough piece of work with several striking images and fine performances from Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, and Brian Cox, it’s overwritten and overproduced when compared to the sleek and furious pacing of the original which clocks in 20 minutes shorter and leaves fewer loose ends.
Spider Baby (1967) d. Hill, Jack (USA) (6th viewing)
R.I.P., Sid Haig. Ian Simmons of Kicking the Seat and the Doc sit down to pay tribute to the horror/exploitation icon in podcast form, watching the superlative Arrow Blu-ray presentation from a few years back.
***KICKING THE SEAT PODCAST LINK COMING SOON***
***CLICK HERE FOR FULL BLU-RAY REVIEW***
CIVILIAN:
Pulp Fiction (1994) d. Tarantino, Quentin (USA) (5th viewing)
25 years later, it’s still really, really good. Seriously, though, how has it already been 25 years???
Twentynine Palms (2003) d. Dumont, Bruno (France/Germany) (1st viewing)
I stumbled across this title doing a search for “sexy horror films,” which this most certainly is not. It’s defiantly “art-house horror” in that it’s not really a horror film but a long existential drama about a couple’s deteriorating relationship while on a road trip through Joshua Tree National Park. Not the same thing in my book. Yes, some horrible things do happen, but not until the final moments. And it’s not so much sexy as it just has a lot of sex in it. Again, not the same thing. That said, it’s definitely interesting for the art-house crowd, as long as they are willing to take the long ride and can appreciate the violent payoff for the left hook out of nowhere that it is.
BOND KILLS, LIVES, KILLS AGAIN:
A View to a Kill (1985) d. Glen, John (UK) (2nd viewing)
Roger Moore ends his tenure with this reworking of the Goldfinger plot with Christopher Walken plotting to destroy Silicon Valley so that his microchips will be more valuable than everyone else’s. Tanya Roberts gives perhaps the worst Bond Lady performance on record, even besting Denise Richards’ turn in The World is Not Enough, which was more a case of miscasting. Grace Jones, with her striking and muscular screen presence almost makes up for it, although when she tries to deliver dialogue, it’s a decided deficit. That said, it’s far from the nadir of the Moore era as it is often made out to be, with a straightforward plot, a minimum of silliness, and a surprisingly mean streak of senseless violence… which is kind of what you’d expect from a megalomaniacal psychotic, isn’t it?
The Living Daylights (1987) d. Glen, John (UK) (2nd viewing)
Taking over after Moore’s seven-film and 12-year run, Timothy Dalton attempted to inject some seriousness back into the series with a no-nonsense Bond who bedded fewer beauties and dabbled in fewer doo-dads. Unfortunately, his debut feature is a sprawling Cold War fable that has a few thrills but is hampered by cartoon villains courtesy of Joe Don Baker and Jeroen Krabbe. It is, however, rewarding to see Bond have some genuine anger and fury when comrades and innocents get needlessly killed, and Dalton does them better than anyone had thus far (though Daniel Craig probably has the edge in the final tally). Maryam d’Abo is a very appealing heroine who proves quietly resourceful although she is still required to be saved in the final moment just to provide Bond with something heroic to do.
License to Kill (1989) d. Glen, John (UK) (2nd viewing)
I know this one takes a lot of flack, but I liked it quite a bit. Yes, it’s a bit of a hot mess at times and it’s definitely the meanest Bond in the bunch. I mean, poor Felix Leiter (a returning David Hedison from Live and Let Die) gets his damn leg bit off by a shark and his wife (Priscilla Barnes) gets murdered in her house before we’re barely 20 minutes in, but the action feels more realistic and only gets outrageous once or twice. Plus, Carey Lowell and Talisa Soto are two terrific and feisty Bond Ladies who are nobody’s doormat and neither has to die to build our hero up.
Dalton gets really, really mad at times (which he’s good at), and refuses a lot of help and sends his allies (including Desmond Llewellyn’s Q, who figures prominently into the action for once) home a half dozen times only to be saved by them ignoring his orders, making for a very un-Bond-like Bond film. But, hey, that’s okay by me. Robert Davi is probably in my Top Five villains for the series, and having a young Benicio del Toro as his vicious sidekick doesn’t hurt a bit.
If Dalton might have possessed a little more of that indescribable effortless star power instead of just being a good actor, he might have been better accepted as Bond. As it stands, he never really got a chance to grow into the role (and it probably doesn’t help that, at least in America, the public never really got over him being chosen over Pierce Brosnan, whose contract with Remington Steele kept him from taking on the role eight years earlier than he did) and he never really got a great Bond film to star in. Sorry about that, Tim.
2019 Totals to Date: 329 films, 168 1st time views, 167 horror, 28 cinema
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