recent views: "Sleepless" & "Terror Firmer"...

[mr. henry]

wrote up two of my recent views...

Sleepless - 2001 (R). (VHS) Written and directed by Dario Argento. AKA "Non ho sonno." A disappointing Argento offering from the one time master of gory Italian thrillers. The story is unbelievably unbelievable, even for it's characteristically somewhat unbelievable genre. A series of murders begins with similarities to a closed case from many years earlier. It all has something to do with a serial-killing dwarf, or a ventriloquist's dummy, or something of the sort. (Don't try to figure it all out.) And the "surprise" ending isn't. NOTE: The American R-rated release is supposedly missing about one minute of gore and, while I'm no fan of such censorship, I doubt the missing minute makes much difference. NOT RECOMMENDED.

Terror Firmer - 1999 (R & Unr). (dvd) Directed and co-written by Lloyd Kaufman. Pandemonium breaks loose at the home of a fictitious independent movie studio based on Lloyd Kaufman's real life Troma studio and book "All I Need To Know About Filmmaking I Learned From The Toxic Avenger." Kaufman himself plays the blind independent movie director in charge of it all. Get ready for leg dismemberment, beating via previously dismembered leg, de-fetusing, a man-eating escalator, pickle erotica, mad cow costume suffication, afro-inducing electrocution, runaway delivery truck dismemberment, vomiting frenchmen, Ron Jeremy, and stretched ventriloquist's nether regions. This entertaining indy mayhem doubles as a sometimes scathing commentary regarding mainstream Hollywood productions. Offensive and RECOMMENDED.

happy b-movie viewing,
- mr. henry

[Steven Millan]

                 I happen to have liked both movies.
            "Sleepless" is Dario Argento's own John Carpenter-esque homage to all of his other films,since many of the scenes pay tribute to his earlier classics("Deep Red","Tenebrae","Four Flies On Grey Velvet"),and while it wasn't a new classic,at least it was a fun film to enjoy,and yes,Artisan's video/DVD version is missing the one minute of gore that this film does need,in order to keep it in full balance.
           Don't worry,Henry,for Greg Goodsell heavily bashes "Sleepless" in the latest "Deep Red" issue(which is out right now,and available only through the Rotten Cotton website).

[mr. henry]

one more Sleepless gripe:

i went into watching sleepless with high expectations. because of that i only found it to be average...and for a director capable of more, that really made it disappointing for m,---though you can tell (and we know) that argento is capable of more...and at two hours this seemed overlong and underpaced.

...i still don't get how the killer got on the train so fast...did he get out of be really fast and follow the starlett all the way to the train, wait for her to board, and then search the train for her???

-mr. henry