Recent Viewings, Part 2

[M.10rda]

WAXWORK II: LOST IN TIME (1991):
Jazzed after our revisit of the original WAXWORK ('88), Madame and I decided to watch the sequel that she had little recollection of and which I entirely skipped upon its release. What a mistake! Zach Galligan is back as "Mark", somehow w/ diminished onscreen confidence and comedy chops after three years on the bench, mostly looking dazed and/or confused by the admittedly senseless proceedings. Original final girl "Sarah" is now played by Monika Schnarre, who is a much weaker actress than Deborah Foreman and is also much taller than both Foreman and Galligan, which lends to much visual and physical awkwardness onscreen. As in the first film, the supporting cast is filled w/ recognizable C-list actors from the 80s and early 90s. but now only popping in for several seconds-to-minutes and making little impression.

I don't wish to criticize the recently deceased, but writer/director Anthony Hickox presumably had every bit as much control over this sequel as he did over the original, and seems to quadruple down on all the excessive eccentricities that made the first one a delight, only w/ severely diminished returns. Most of LOST IN TIME reflects the same reckless directorial abandon of the original film's chaotic climax w/o that film's impressive production values - there is a lengthy ALIEN/S parody sequence that looks cheaper and tackier than any of Corman's many no-budget knock-offs - and the screenplay makes enough sense to suspect Hickox wrote each scene hastily in his trailer moments before he began shooting. There is A LOT more comedy than in the absurdist/satirical original but most of it is sub-POLICE ACADEMY caliber clowning (and actually Galligan comes off as a slightly less charismatic Gutenberg, oy). Hickox's best films were behind him by 1991, and all that followed after this was one WARLOCK sequel and a lot of TV work. Based on his first three films (WAXWORK, SUNDOWN, and HELLRAISER II), that's a shame...

A few small compliments in Hickox's honor:
1.) There's a brisk bit around the climax where Galligan and the main villain leap through several different eras/genres in quick succession that's more fun than the main plot, including a welcome stagger through the DAWN OF THE DEAD mall;
2.) Bruce Campbell (all too briefly) guests stars in an early segment, giving a very nice if unusual performance as a stuffy 60s professor who gets tortured. Campbell would later acknowledge John Cleese as one of his influences (and even directed an 00s feature solely as an excuse to recreate the Basil Fawlty-with-a-head-injury episode) and his turn here totally gives off Cleese vibes, even to the extent of quoting a famous Cleese Python line as he exits the film...
3.) The closing credits roll over a hip hop video (by "L.A. Posse", and directed by Hickox) which includes the cast dancing and having a good time. (Schnarre is certainly a better dancer than she is an actress.) So 90s it hurts, but at least someone had some fun on this shoot...

2/5 for Bruce

The closing credits claim "Drew Barrymore" appears in one shot as a potential victim of Nosferatu. Cannot possibly be That "Drew Barrymore" but then this was pre-POISON IVY so who knows, but I wasn't about to rewind this dreck to confirm...

[Alex]

Based on his first three films (WAXWORK, SUNDOWN, and HELLRAISER II), that's a shame...

Didn't Tony Randel direct Hellraiser II? I think Hickox was III.

[M.10rda]

Based on his first three films (WAXWORK, SUNDOWN, and HELLRAISER II), that's a shame...

Didn't Tony Randel direct Hellraiser II? I think Hickox was III.

Oh boy! You're probably right. I do enough research and fact-checking for my day job that I often fall down in that department in these posts. Sadly, HELLRAISER III is a lot closer to WAXWORK II  in quality....... 

[M.10rda]

FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED (1970):
Confession: I don't think I've seen all the Hammer Frankensteins or Hammer Draculas, and even as obsessive-compulsive as I am, I don't feel any great motivation to systematically check 'em off my movie bucket list. Of those I've seen, some are more involving and some less, but none have felt like must-sees. All the same, I read that this one was a little unusual so decided to give it a go. Indeed, it's unusual enough in that Peter Cushing's good Baron Doctor has transitioned somehow into a sadistic rapist (?!) and multiple murderer, which I don't recall from the earlier films in the canon. Only two years earlier, Cushing was complaining publicly about the disgraceful amount of sex and violence in his psychedelic slasher flick CORRUPTION. I guess by 1970 he'd stopped clutching his pearls and just decided to keep cashing 'nem checks. If he wasn't enjoying slappin' around a screaming twenty-something trollop while trying to tear off her negligee, you'd never know....... he's just as much a consummate professional onscreen here as he ever was!

The level of blood and sleaze is higher than it was 10-12 years earlier, but otherwise this entry is your usual well-acted, well-costumed, competently produced Hammer product. Dr. Frank's young assistant looks like David Bowie, which is kind of amusing. The only other distinguishing characteristic is that perennial British supporting player Freddie Jones gets to play a rare lead role here, nominally as the "Monster", though more accurately as the brain of a former Frankenstein colleague transplanted into the body of an asylum inmate. The poor guy didn't ask for this treatment, doesn't want any part of it, just misses his wife, and is pretty p**sed off at BVF for putting him in this predicament. You feel sympathy for Jones and really want him to throw Cushing down a deep well or something.

3/5
A reasonably diverting if unremarkable view - might skip any further trips to the HammerFrank archive though.

[FatFreddysCat]

"The Naked Cage" (1986)
Wrongly convicted of bank robbery, a woman is sentenced to three years in one of those typically hellish all-girl B-movie prisons where the warden is corrupt, gangs rule the cell blocks, and none of the inmates seems to own a bra. While trying to figure out how to clear her name, our heroine also has to deal with the usual cat fights, shower room attacks, rampant lesbianism, and gory prison rioting that you expect from a chicks-behind-bars flick. Sleazy fun!

[Rev. Powell]

FIREFLY STEW (1934): The Marx Brothers star as stockbrokers who get a hot tip on cornering the cabbage market. This bucky was a s**t parrot from start to finish. 1/5.

DIVINITY (2023): Two aliens kidnap the ultraweathy entrepreneur who has created the fountain-of-youth drug Divinity, while an all-female cult hunts for the last remaining fertile females on Earth. A strange black and white, beautifully expressionistic sci-fi satire with plentiful nudity that goes gleefully bonkers in the last act, with stop-motion battle between the aliens and the roided-up magnate and an insane joke of a final shot; it has plot and focus issues, but the go-for-broke style blows right through them. 3.5/5.

[lester1/2jr]

"FIREFLY STEW (1934): The Marx Brothers star as stockbrokers who get a hot tip on cornering the cabbage market. This bucky was a s**t parrot from start to finish. 1/5."

I think I have dream ESP!

[M.10rda]

THE UNDERTAKER AND HIS PALS (1966):
An impulse watch that I presumed (after a tough work week) would tax little of my mental faculties, and I was right.   Writer/director "T.L.P. Swicegood" couldn't possibly use his Christian name to make this extremely low-brow, mostly cheap-looking schlockfest that clearly aims to eat Herschell Gordon Lewis' lunch and (fortunately) falls short. The eponymous trio of leather-clad motorcycle thugs love murdering and butchering women as much as any HLG ghoul ever did, even using their bodies as ingredients at a greasy spoon diner and/or overcharging their bereaved loved ones for naff funeral services. It's all pretty mean-spirited, though the film ultimately diversifies beyond misogyny towards general bloodthirsty misanthropy, and (again, mercifully) the violence here is far less graphic and sadistic than in most Lewis joints. Also, unlike many Lewis joints, the bad guys all get what's coming to them by the end, so Swicegood clearly wasn't a complete edgelord jerkface.

The final element that makes TUAHP more inoffensively quasi-charming than distasteful is the gratuitous dollops of broad, broad humor.  The cops in this movie are written and acted as if no one involved in the production had any idea whatsoever about the professional responsibilities or routines of law enforcement officers. (Quite extraordinarily, Swicegood was apparently a staff writer for the 50s "Untouchables" series...?!) The main cop is also one of the most prolific womanizers I've seen in any film in years, and his love scenes could be excerpted today in Title IX training videos or for the purpose of #metoo activism. The verbal repartee is roughly at the "Hee-Haw" level and the physical clowning occasionally reaches a "Benny Hill" pitch - there is, no lie, even a sped-up chase scene w/ a dame running from the Undertaker. Said Undertaker is played by "Ray Dannis", another impossible-sounding pseudonym who isn't (fwiw) 60s low-budget pioneer Ray Dennis Steckler, looks nothing like Steckler, and is a much hammier actor than Steckler (who could've opened a personal acting deli, frankly). Dannis pops and rolls his eyes, minces quite ruthlessly, and even occasionally prances a bit. He also has a slapstick pratfall routine w/ some little neighborhood kids who might be unaware they were appearing in an exploitation movie. Dannis is as classy as anything else in this flick, which is too corny and innocuous to really dislike, if that's a recommendation for ya'...

2/5
I bet John Waters loves this film though and maybe it was even an inspiration for teen JW.

[Rev. Powell]

SOMETHING IN THE DIRT (2022): A bartender with a sordid past and a recently-divorced math professor team up to investigate a floating ashtray, falling into deep and highly questionable rabbit holes of paranormal speculation. Don't look for explanations for the supernatural McGuffin; this is a character study of paranoia, apophenia, and how desperate people can reinforce each others' worst tendencies. 3/5.

[lester1/2jr]

Godzilla Vs Megalon - Was this a lost MST3000 episode? For me, nothing will ever match Space Warriors 2000 as far as Japanese monster movies, but this was pretty good. You know there's going to be a cute little kid and that you're going to have to wait a bit before the big monster fight, though. I would have liked to see some more of the colorful Sea People, who in their defense, were responding to bothersome nuclear tests when they unleashed Megalon.

Jet Jaguar lends his talents and good looks. 4.25/ 5

Lose the tired cute kid character and better integration of plot and monster action next time. Oh wait this is from 50 year ago

[M.10rda]

The Rev is the expert on MST3K but I am almost 100% certain I've watched the MST version of GODZILLA VS. MEGALON back in the 90s. Of course I was probably tipsy on hard cider at the time so let's make that 99.9% certain.

[Rev. Powell]

Yes, GODZILLA VS. MEGALON was on MST3K, and they never officially released it after broadcast because Toho refused to license it again.

[lester1/2jr]

I recognized the sliding on his tail Godzilla from the MSTK3000 intro

[indianasmith]

THE WRATH OF BECKY (2023) - Becky, the sweet little blonde kid who killed four neo-Nazi ex-cons for murdering her Dad, is back.  She's 16 now, on the run from the foster system, and staying with an elderly black woman while she works as a waitress at a local cafe. But then a trio of right-wing extremists belonging to an organization called The Noble Men (clearly modeled on the Proud Boys) come to town to meet up with their cell leader.  They are rude and obnoxious, so Becky "accidentally" gives one of them a cup of coffee in the lap.  They follow her home when she gets off work, there's a confrontation, and her kind friend is shot dead, her dog is stolen, and Becky is left unconscious.  But when she comes around, she is royally ticked - and the bad guys were stupid enough to drop the name of the Noble Men leader they were meeting.  Bloodshed and chaos ensue.  DON'T MESS WITH BECKY!
This was very fun revenge flick, rather unrealistic but still entertaining!  4/5

[Dr. Whom]

The Boy and the Heron (2023)

Young Mahito loses his mother in a fire during WW II. A year later his father moves to the countryside to live with his new wife. Mahito is still grieving about his mother and is stalked by a magical heron which has something to do with a mysterious tower and a family secret.

I liked this one a lot, but then I am a Miyazaki fan. This feels to me like Miyazaki was doing just what he wanted, freed from any external constraint. A lot of stuff seems to have been put in there simply for the fun of it. It is not the most tightly plotted movie and it has a more dream-like an emotional coherence rather than a strictly logical narrative structure. At times it felt like I was watching something by Jodorowski. Fans of Miyazaki will find lots to love.