Recent Viewings, Part 2

[lester1/2jr]

Delirium (2023) - Took a late night chance on this one and didn't end up liking it. It was interesting to see Iceland, where it takes place, but there's too little of the scenery and altogether too much of the lead guy. Basically, it's a really downbeat foreign film combined with a found footage type plot about a horrible, evil, cursed box that makes people who have it go crazy (but they are like dying of curiosity about it). It also has a little bit of Memento to it because he is always waking up in a place and doesn't know how he got there.

2.5 /5 I'd say skip it

[FatFreddysCat]

"American Dragons" (aka "Double Edge," 1998)
A tough NYC cop (Michael Biehn of "Terminator" and "Aliens") teams up with a Korean detective to stop all out war in the streets between the local Mafia and the Japanese Yakuza, who want to take control of the city's underworld. Many bullets fly and punches are thrown.

Due to the East-meets-West angle, this direct to video action flick feels kinda like "Rush Hour" if it had been played straight. It's nothing I'll ever watch again, but it was a decent enough time waster.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Espionage in Tangiers" (1965)
Silly Spanish/Italian 007 knock-off in which studly secret agent Mike Murphy (Luis Davila, who looks a lot like future Bond George Lazenby) travels to Morocco and France in search of the stolen components to a scientist's disintegration ray.
This poorly dubbed spy flick is basically a bunch of random fist fights and car chases in search of a plot. Some nice European scenery and hot 60s babes make it watchable, but just barely. Skip it!

[M.10rda]

APACHE DRUMS (1951):
Produced by Val Lewton but starring and directed by no one I've ever heard of, this is a rare mid-20th century American Western made with a lot of nuance. (I admit Westerns aren't my favorite genre.) The title and opening credits had me braced for pure xenophobia, but then immediately the film establishes a plausible - in fact historically accurate - rationale for the indigenous rampage we're about to be subjected to. Although the Apache are a monolithic and mostly faceless menace, there are also sympathetic/heroic native characters to allow for the #notallIndians defense, and in fact white-on-indigenous racism is a recurring and conscious theme of the film. Ultimately the victimization of innocents by the native villains is deplorable, but if one reads between the lines its clear the filmmakers understood that U.S. Colonialism was the true Big Bad. Even so, APACHE DRUMS affords similar depth and complexity to the central white characters forced to suffer the Apache's rage. None of the Caucasians are above reproach nor are any of them beyond redemption.

Perhaps less-enlightened but quite nifty is the way that APACHE DRUMS is structured entirely like a horror movie. The threat encroaches on a sleepy community, which is slow to recognize or give credence to the imminent danger. Once the situation is inescapable, all attempts to escape, stock up on vital supplies, or summon immediate support are thwarted (fatally!). At last a scrappy handful of survivors must hole up in an imperfect fortress and strive desperately to survive until morning... or beyond! This is the plot of countless horror films - Romero zombie flicks, ALIENS, SINNERS. When the Apache start coming through the windows and leaping upon women and children, and candles get blown out and leave the protagonists in total darkness for a moment - man, this is scarier than any real Horror film from the early 50s!

3.5/5
I don't find Val Lewton films particularly scary or entertaining, either. Val Lewton and 50s Westerns - two bland tastes that somehow taste great together!

[LordGraal]

Nemesis (1992) 

I wasn't sure whether to put this in the Good or Bad section.  I think it's just about good because of the photography, soundtrack (mostly), locations, some of the acting (Tim Thomerson, Marjorie Monaghan, Yuji Okumoto, Deborah Shelton and Merle Kennedy) action and ambience.

Olivier Gruner is a block of wood most of the time.  Brion James' accent is terrible.  But there are some very good scenes along side the hurried and ridiculous ones.  It's very derivative (The Terminator and Blade Runner) but just about makes it's own impression and creates a mood.  The less said about the sequels the better.

My main takeaway is to never trust anyone wearing a suit for a start.

[lester1/2jr]

The Ceremony Is About To Begin (2024) - Interesting little curio here. It's probably not in my top 1000 favorite movies of all time, but was a decent way to pass the time on a very late Saturday night. Imagine a mockumentary about a cult with an Egyptian, Ramses the Great sort of brand combined with a found footage horror film about that same cult. That's basically it.

It's logical enough, but not particularly scary and the comedy stuff isn't laugh out loud funny. If you are a cinematic scenester of some sort I would probably recommend it more than for straight found footage fans.


Definitely a case of "How in the world did they find/assemble the footage if..." syndrome but what are you gonna do

4/5 not bad