Movie Review of Amityville II: The Possession (1982)

Amityville II: The Possession (1982) - One of the greatest hoaxes of the 20th century concerned a supposedly haunted house in a town called Amityville. The subject of first a book then a movie, it spurned on even more movies, each as much a work of fiction as the first. The one thing that was not a work of fiction was there was a mass murder of members of the DeFeo family at 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville in 1974. This was referenced in the opening of the first movie and an element of the story. Amityville II: The Possession does a fictitious take on that mass murder by changing the family name, setting it in the 1980s and involving a possession ala The Exorcist.

The Montelli family has moved into the home they bought in Amityville. From the start there is an antagonistic relationship between the father and the eldest son, Sonny (like that's original). Sonny and his teenage sister, Dawn, also have an awkwardly flirty relationship. The father is loud and abusive toward his family while the mother walks a line between love and hate for him. If this weren't bad enough of a setting, a presence is in the house and begins communicating with Sonny via the headphones on his walkman style radio. Feeling the house has something evil lurking in it the mother asks a priest to come over and bless it, setting into motion events that will lead to the murder of the entire family by one of their own, and he's possessed.

The movie is essentially trying to merge several genres into a single movie, and not successfully. This initially starts off as a well directed haunted house story in the first half of the movie but then flounders and dies a deserving death in the second half that degrades into a bad made-for-TV movie before it finishes off trying to copy The Exorcist right down to the priest's self-sacrifice for the demon to take him instead of the 'innocent' boy.

I would go further into describing the movie, but what defines this film as the lowest of exploitation trash that it is, is from the start making a movie to profit off the murders of a family. They might have used the excuse that it was just based loosely on the tragedy, and loosely based in reality it was, but a movie going public is not going to see this as complete fiction when it is promoted as not only being based on a true story, but it clearly states in the advertising "this is their story". Even changing the family name and elements of what happened that night does not take away from the fact that this was just another gimmick to make a buck off of tragedy. To add to the sleaziness of what the producers of this movie did was unfounded accusations of incest and child abuse within the murdered family, and once again even with the names changed a movie going audience is going to think this reflects on the victims.

Despite excellent direction and scene structure in the early part of the film and really wonderful performances by Erika Katz and Brent Katz (real life siblings too), and being such young performers at that, I can't give this other than my lowest rating for simply being the exploitative trash it is.

I give it 1 Dagger

Making Love (1982): Boldly Coming Out in the 80s

Making Love (1982) - 1982 was a banner year for Hollywood's coming out party, so to speak. No fewer than four films with prominent gay themes or subplots were released by the major studios including Making Love, Victor Victoria, Personal Best and Partners. Making Love was the only one in which the main plot was the coming out of a man, the main character of the story, and in 1982 suffered the consequences of an unaccepting public, and unaccepting film critics.

I watched Making Love at the theater upon its release in 1982. I went to see it because Kate Jackson was in it, having been a fan of Charlie's Angels as any teenage boy of the time would have been. I didn't read any reviews and was completely ignorant of what the movie was about. It was slowly sinking in this was not a love triangle between Kate Jackson's character and two guys.

When Michael Ontkean's and Harry Hamlin's first onscreen kiss happened, the theater erupted. Some guy several rows behind me shouted some now forgotten expletive as he launched his large soft drink at the screen, ice and cola splattering on the upper right -hand side of the screen and running down the length. The lights came on as probably one third of the audience left the theater; I guess in the few days the movie had played there they had gotten used to such reactions. At the time I laughed at the audience's reaction though I stayed and got to see a wonderful movie, even with the stain on the screen throughout.

Unfortunately, at the time, many film critics, though they may have stayed for the movie, just as much walked out with that one third of the audience in their minds. If you think that is an overstatement, just consider the national film critic consensus for the movie according to Rotten Tomatoes at just under one third approval rating as compared with the IMDb general audience rating of just over two thirds approval.

I can't say what the perspective of a reviewer with a homosexual viewpoint might be, but the clearly negative film critic, to be read as heterosexual, response strikes me as more boys club gay jokes than honest critique. Despite Rotten Tomatoes having a usually dependable cross-section of opinion from knowledgeable film critics, the 31% average score on their site for this film clearly, in my opinion only, shows a conservative stuck in the Reagan 80s bias of film critics, which as a movie reviewer is embarrassing. While the IMDb audience rating comes in at 68% showing a more progressive and socially conscious contemporary audience as contrasted with film critics.

In all fairness to Rotten Tomatoes and more contemporary film critics, there are only 16 critic reviews for the film on Rotten Tomatoes, with many written when this was released to the theater in 1982; and many of those lead to error pages as they are no longer valid links. Their average might be representative of a 1980s opinion and a conservative white opinion but it sure is not representative of more contemporary and progressive critical or public opinion. Perhaps Rotten Tomatoes might want to incorporate a better system when it comes to legacy films that doesn't rate them based on outdated viewpoints that are most definitely entrenched in their time.

Interestingly if this had been a story about a woman coming out and her lesbian lover, not only would that one third of the audience not walked out but I wouldn't be writing this commentary. If you think that is bunk, Personal Best was also released in 1982, and though the homosexual element of the story is secondary to the competition main story, it is a story about two women who develop a romantic relationship. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 77% approval rating. There are a few more recent reviews out of the 22 reviews as compared to Making Love, but still quite a few legacy reviews, and some of those legacy reviewers panned Making Love.

Making Love is the story of an all too idealistic marriage. Zach and Claire are a couple on the edge of 30 following their goals in life together. They have just bought a house, and though no children as they wanted to get their careers in order first, they have settled on a name for the child. They are best friends who seemingly have the idyllic marriage, except for one thing he has been trying to repress all these years; he's attracted to men. Enter Bart, a successful writer and all too seemingly the guy most any man would want to be; handsome, fit, well to do, and free spirited. However, Bart is gay, despite all those so-called 'man' qualities, and those qualities don't go unnoticed by Zach in a chance meeting. Eight years of marriage thinking he is living the life he's suppose to, now Zach is questioning his own inner mysteries as what he has been suppressing all these years he cannot hold back.

The storyline of the movie is chronological though told in flashback, introduced by the characters of Claire and Bart, then intermittently as Claire and Bart separately inject their feelings about the events which have transpired in the movie; using a narrator approach in these instances of breaking the fourth wall and speaking to the viewer to explain things that would have otherwise labored the dialogue of the film.

The story unfolds brilliantly. We are introduced to the characters of Zach and Claire out with a realtor looking at a home. It is the ideal home for them, though even with their successful careers it is a little out of their league. Deciding to throw caution to the wind, and to pack bagged lunches for economy, they take the home as it is one more perfect step in their marriage, their marriage as they always wanted it to be.

I don't know if it was just a happy coincidence in getting Michael Ontkean and Kate Jackson to play a couple. It strikes me as deliberate, having starred together previously in the TV series The Rookies they have a natural and fun chemistry together. This is ideal for painting them as the seemingly perfect and loving couple.

Hamlin and Ontkean work well together. The characters of Zach and Bart have an instant chemistry. Together they are at times whimsical, intriguing, and playful. As portrayed onscreen, and this is from a heterosexual viewpoint for context, it's easy to see the attraction of the two characters, and when they are together in the early stages they are as much fun as Zack and Claire.

These are important distinctions in the story, presenting Zach as someone following the imposed rules of a social dogma which frowns upon and even chastises what he feels naturally. His relationship with Claire is not presented so perfectly to be read as something he'd be stupid to give up so he should just go 'straight', it's presented as even in the most seemingly idyllic marriage he is just checking off the list as he's told to do and trapped, not being who he really is.

Making Love does not waste a line of dialogue or a scene. The structure of the narrative fits everything together seemlessly. Unlike one prominent critic's comment "This movie has some of the worst dialogue one can imagine.." it is intelligently written with dialogue that pulls the viewer into the story and defines the characters. This is not a script trying to be gay but was actually developed as a story idea by A. Scott Berg and the screenplay was written by Barry Sandler, both of whom are gay and the contrast in the characters of Zach and Bart takes a little from each of them, in Zach being relationship minded and Bart being a player. Zach and Bart are well fleshed out characters with intriguing conversations between them and come off as very human and very normal characters in contrast to the all too common stereotypes of gay characters Hollywood flooded movies with. You can read more on the writing of the script and the making of the movie in this excellent article.

Ultimately Making Love is a play set upon an idyllic stage of life against a backdrop of the all-American dream. It's not 'slice of life' but an allegory of 'life by the rules' and those very rules stigmatizing someone's inner self forcing them into a facade they try to believe is real, and certainly parts of it are, but being true to oneself is repressed by this very facade. Living by the rules not only victimizes the repressed by living within 'acceptable' social (to be read as theocratic) boundaries, but those who unknowingly become a part of the facade, and the dream.

I saw Making Love as I mentioned in 1982. I had not seen it again until I watched it for this review. For a movie I had not seen in 35 years much of it had stuck with me. That's quite a movie that has that kind of staying power.

I give it a full 5 Daggers


Availability

Making Love is available on DVD

Zombie (1979): Very Much Digestible

Zombie (1979) - Lucio Fulci's zombie movie classic. Kind of killing the suspense of what I think of it, huh? Known variously as Zombi 2, Zombie Flesh Eaters and Gli Ultimi Zombi among various other titles worldwide. Following on the heels of Dawn of the Dead (1978), released as Zombi in Italy and other countries and hence why Zombie is also called Zombi 2 to appear related, Fulci defined the zombie movie and those who would follow in his tracks arguably more than Romero did with Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. Romero is obviously the granddaddy of the genre, but Fulci pumped his movie full of atmosphere, a feeling of apocalyptic doom in the air, deliberate pacing, and of course gut wrenching gore earning him the nickname the Maestro of Maggot Mayhem.

A mysterious, abandoned boat is adrift in New York Harbor. Events subsequently on that boat and the contents found on board set a reporter and a woman on a trip to an uncharted Caribbean island looking for her missing father, and into the grips of an unexplained epidemic causing the dead to rise from their graves.

The premise of Zombie is simple, and this premise would end up being copied for many movies to come. From the opening scene of voodoo drums beating in the background, a corpse tied up in a sheet used as a death shroud slowly rising as a man turns and fires a bullet into the head of the corpse, death is in the air as a tempo is set in place for the film to follow.

A constant presence of voodoo and superstition lingers throughout the film. From locals talking about the things they have heard to patients in a ramshackle mission hospital talking to their recently deceased while in a state of delirium, death lingers in the air. Flies abound, bodies wrapped in sheets are piled into a mass grave, all have been shot in the head. Despair is all around. This is not a redneck jaunt through a shopping center but a story of survival with an air thick with the apocalypse at hand.

Fulci successfully brings this story to the screen in a sickeningly beautiful presentation. The pacing is deliberate. There are no running zombies in this. The dead rise as though they are corpses; their movements punctuated by sounds as though rotting ropes are being twisted. The music is haunting, from voodoo drums to fully realized compositions. It is a masterpiece setting a standard not even equaled by Fulci.

I give it 5 Daggers.

Availability

DVD and Blu-ray

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981): A Swingin' Time

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - When trouble arises our intrepid, gallant hero whips it out, I mean an actual whip, or pulls it out, I mean an actual revolver, and is one swinging guy... that just did not sound right.

A professor of archaeology and world adventurer, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) faces down danger constantly trying to secure the relics of our past for study and preservation in universities and museums, racing against those who would acquire such antiques for bounties, or for more sinister reasons. Taking place in the years before World War II, the Nazis are scouring the Earth in search of religious artifacts thought to have supernatural powers. One such artifact is the Ark of the Covenant as told in stories of the old testament and the torah. Indiana Jones is also on the trail of the Ark facing off against Nazis, would be assassins, and various other villains in a story straight out of the pulps.

The difference with this franchise spawning entry into pulp inspired adventure stories versus any movies which came before, is it is as vivid and exciting as anything a mind could dream up reading old issues of Doc Savage Magazine. A leather jacket and fedora clad, whip wielding adventurer with a gun strapped to his side lashes, shoots, rides, and fights his way out of predicaments only to find himself facing yet another predicament. His is an older world, one steeped in propeller airplanes, feisty dames, desert raiders, Nazis and occult lore. Telephones were things you used to tell an operator the number you wanted, probably a 3 or 5 digit number. A two-way radio would have weighed more than a microwave oven. And if you needed to contact someone for help, you were pretty much on your own.

Two successful movie directors teamed together to bring to life a story like it could have only been imagined before. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas brought the adventure of the 1930s pulps roaring full steam ahead into the 1980s. For better or worse Raiders of the Lost Ark spearheaded the 80s into the decade of the blockbuster.

I give it 5 Daggers. Even though I think Indy is a little meaner in this one, this is the movie which set the standard for others to follow, including itself.

Availability

DVD and Blu-ray

Iced (1988): Going Downhill Fast

Iced (1988) - This movie has two things going for it, both of which are Lisa Loring's breasts. You recall Lisa Loring played Wednesday Addams on the TV show The Addams Family in the 1960s. If you ever thought you would like to see Wednesday Addams naked, well you're just a pervert becasue she was a kid, but all grown up she can certainly get your ski lift working.

Away at a ski resort a group of friends are busy with food, feuding and fu... I mean making love. One of their party who apparently has a god complex about himself has had too much to drink and wants to fight just about everybody. He takes off at night to do some skiing and ends up getting himself killed. Four years later the remaining group of friends are invited to a ski weekend at a resort just opening, but something is amiss as someone is stalking and killing them.

Yadda, yadda, yadda, you've seen this plot before in so many slasher movies. Not only is this one late to the party having come out in 1988, it sinks to the bottom of the barrel from the start and doesn't surface for air once. From one of the most poorly edited openings it has been my displeasure to see in a slasher movie to the most inconsistent red herrings I do believe I have ever seen so disrespectfully dumped on an audience.

The identity of the killer in this is so overly obvious. How do the filmmakers try to overcome this? By filling the movie with red herrings to throw off the viewer. But the red herrings are so stupid. They actually succeed in having the killer in two places at once, and it's for no other reason to distract the audience from this movie having barely any plot. It is incompetent and insulting to a viewer's intelligence.

I give it 1 1/2 Daggers. And the only reason it gets and extra half Dagger is for Lisa Loring's hot tub scene. You can find it on YouTube.

Availability

VHS Only

The Presidio (1988): A Thriller Lacking Thrills

The Presidio (1988) - At an army base, the Presidio, an MP discovers a suspicious car parked outside a building on the base and signs of a break-in. While investigating the break-in she is shot dead by the intruders who then lead MPs and subsequently San Francisco police on a chase which results in two police officers being killed in a car crash. Police Inspector Jay Austin (Mark Harmon) is sent to the Presidio to investigate the crime. Austin used to be an MP at the Presidio and has a history with both the deceased and several of the officers on the base, including the provost marshal Lt. Colonel Caldwell (Sean Connery) who is also investigating the crime. Considering their past history, Austin and Caldwell do not get along well with each other, and Austin does not get along well with anybody at the base. Of course a growing relationship between Austin and Caldwell's daughter, Donna (Meg Ryan) does not help matters.

This is more of a mystery, or a police procedural, than a thriller. It is essentially two stories, a detective story and a romance, both of which are tepid at best. which is also my reaction to this movie. From a movie standpoint it hits its marks, so the story is there and it works. What is not there, to me, is tension. In many thrillers and mysteries there is a sense of danger, or essentially a threat to the investigator trying to solve the crime, but no such threat exists for our two frictional detectives (and I mean frictional) figuring out this case. Of course just as much time, or so it seems, is spent on the relationship developing, actually fully blown from the start, between Jay and Donna.

The Presidio lacks suspense and some elements of the story are head scratchers which most likely exist because they were on a list of things to include in a mystery movie regardless of whether they fit with the movie. The relationship between Jay and Donna is much the same as the mystery in that it springs to life suddenly. There really is no challenge or courage for the characters to face, and so it doesn't feel like much was accomplished in the end.

I give it 2 1/2 Daggers. It's a competent enough movie, but it is still lacking and I feel I wasted my time with it.

Availability

DVD and Blu-ray

Anderson Bench (2016): Blood Letting and Laughs

Anderson Bench (2016) - I'm guessing like many of us I didn't quite expect this movie to be what it is. When you think of blood splattered comedies, names like Herschell Gordon Lewis, David F. Friedman and Ted V. Mikels come to mind. Somehow I must have missed the boat in associating that guy from The Dukes of Hazzard, John Schneider. Well, it seems like a new name has been added to that list of producers/directors of twisted, blood splattered movies.

Anderson Bench (Jordan Salloum) is a down on his luck guy not too different from many of us who feel life has passed us by and left us spinning our wheels in the muck of our misery. His job of flipping burgers was probably not his goal in life, and married life for him is not any better. Then this young woman shows up out of nowhere and takes him on the ride of his life, a murderous ride that is.

That description would sound kind of like a horror movie, or certainly a more dramatic movie. But alas, it is a comedy, and a twisted one at that. From shootings to cutting people up into tiny little pieces, and a shredding machine thrown in for good measure, what takes place in this movie would be the envy of 60s and 70s exploitation directors. This takes a page from splatter movies of yesterday and updates it with the technology of today.

Anderson Bench has a visual and audio quality you would expect from top studios, even though this was made by an independent studio. Unlike most movies I have ever seen, the soundtrack plays throughout the movie. I found the use of an Italian western soundtrack through nearly one third of the movie to particularly enhance the scenes.

I don't claim to get this movie entirely. I don't know if that is the intention as I got the feeling the movie was presented as it is, and what you make of it from there is what you make of it. Don't get me wrong, the story is complete, it's just what you get out of it personally is more up to you.

As a comedy it is dark. This is not a teen comedy, or any other comedy you have likely seen. But, despite being dark it does have fun with it, and pumps energy and laughs into what could have easily been a sideshow splatter movie in lesser hands. As it is, Anderson Bench is thoroughly soaked in blood while having its tongue firmly planted in its cheek.

I give it 3 1/2 Daggers. It is entertaining and well made.

Availability

I had actually seen at least one review and several trailers for this movie on Twitter on many occasions. It is available as video on demand on Vimeo.

April Fool's Day (1986): Real Review or Not?

April Fool's Day (1986) - A group of college friends are ferried to the island mansion of their classmate, Muffy St. John, to celebrate their last year of college. Being a group of practical jokers at heart, from collapsing chairs to mysterious eyes in paintings, nothing seems to be off limits for practical jokes. Soon, though, with friends gone missing and Muffy acting strangely, the line between practical jokes and grim reality fades as the remaining friends are fighting for their lives. Or are they?

Featuring a cast of talented young actors including Deborah Foreman, Amy Steel, and Ken Olandt, April Fool's Day starts off with a bang. From the first scene we see these characters are always joking and pranking each other. Even a horrible accident on the boat ride on the way to the island where they will spend the weekend does not put a damper on their sense of humor. The sense of humor in this contrasts well, initially, against the story as it develops and brings down the amiability of the group.

I said initially because even though the movie as a whole has its tongue firmly in its cheek, there is a point where fantasy and reality, in the story on screen, become difficult to distinguish. Of course this is intentional on the part of the filmmakers and will rub different viewers right or wrong.

Overall April Fool's Day is a fun movie, and a different kind of slasher movie. It's not a movie you want to analyze. There are various elements in the movie which are there for the story, or effect if you will, but make little or no sense. It does not affect the rest of the movie, unless you spend too much time thinking about it, and the potential is rife for this movie to keep you annoyed if you let illogical stuff distract you.

I give it 3 Daggers for being a fun movie.

Availability

DVD

Halloween (1978): He's Still Bringing It Home

Halloween (1978) - Having murdered his older sister on Halloween night in 1963, Michael Myers has been sitting in a mental institution, not saying a word for 15 years but  staring blankly into a wall. Waiting ever so patiently for this night when he will return to Haddonfield to finish what he started.

Halloween set in motion what would become the formula duplicated to a fault in hundreds of movies to follow. There have been knife wielding killers before, even masked killers in many of the Italian giallo movies as a staple and in some American horror movies of old. But on this Halloween night in 1978, the American slasher as we know it was born; patiently stalking his would-be victims until the moment is just right and springing on them in a spree of bloody carnage.

Michael Myers is a mysterious character. Even though everybody by now knows who he is, the only thing known about him is that at the age of 6 he killed his sister, 15 years later he return to the same town to kill again, and yet nobody knows why. Perhaps Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) has the answer in referring to Michael Myers simply as evil. Evil simply does not need a reason to do what it does, and that may be key to why Halloween worked so well then and continues to work so well for new and old audiences alike.

Pumped up with a tempestuous soundtrack, Halloween works at various levels. The music claws at the chalkboard of your nerves to get your heart beating faster. Then it kicks into high gear to get your heart racing as the tension on the screen crawls up your neck. Composition of light, shadow and music combine with skillfully controlled direction, bringing naturally developed characters into the arms of a faceless evil while the timbre of the audience rises to a scream.

I give it 5 Daggers. Halloween is simply a classic with high rewatchability.

Availability

DVD and Blu-ray

Escape from New York (1981): Outdated but Still Fun

Escape from New York (1981) - En route to New York for a critical broadcast, the president's plane is hijacked forcing him to escape via a pod while the plane crashes down in Manhattan. Unfortunately the president's escape pod also comes down in New York City, now a prison of sorts, and with him is a critical message for the broadcast essential to world peace.

In order to save the president, a deal is struck with a convict, an ex-special forces soldier named Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell). He has 24 hours to rescue the president and the message he carries or, as a special incentive to complete his mission, implanted explosives will rupture the arteries in his neck ensuring immediate death.

Escape from New York takes place in the not too distant future of 1997. Well, that was in 1981 when the movie was released, and now it is 20 years in our past. I'm wondering how New Yorkers are feeling about the representation of their city now? Of course the year the movie takes place can be easily overlooked and enjoyed for what it is, but the part that has always bugged me about the movie is this message the president carries is on a cassette tape. I realize the plot of the movie, and the way it ends, hinges on this one element, but it just seems silly to me.

Escape from New York is not entirely original. The main character of Snake Plissken is basically a retread of any of a number of gunslingers from any of a number of Italian westerns. He is a loner, rude, self-centered caring only for himself without a concern for others, and not a particularly chatty fellow. Of course I'm talking about Snake Plissken; didn't mean to confuse you thinking I was still talking about the Italian western gunslinger.

This movie comes at the end of better than a decade rife with post-apocalyptic movies and TV shows including Planet of the Apes, Damnation Alley, Ark II and many others. A post-apocalyptic world, a prison city, and a prison escape are not original to this movie, nor are most of the other elements of this movie culled from blaxploitation movies of the 70s, the aforementioned westerns and prison escape movies.

What Escape from New York does have is a well paced story, more interesting supporting characters than the main character, fantastic art direction, and of course the strength of John Carpenter's direction and composition. Despite its unsympathetic main character and incredibly silly premise it does work and is a lot of fun, in a Saturday morning cartoon sort of way.

I give it 3 Daggers simply for being a fun movie that is well put together.

Availability

Blu-ray and DVD

My Name is Nobody (1973): Bullets, Barfights & Buffoonery

My Name is Nobody (1973) - Riding off into the sunset of his life, Jack Beauregard (Henry Fonda) is only looking to retire peacefully from gunfighting. But the old west doesn't forget so easily and tagging along, much to his annoyance at times, is his number one fan, Nobody (Terence Hill).

Seemingly out of nowhere comes this stranger only calling himself Nobody. He has Jack at a disadvantage being he knows all about Jack, but Jack, nor anybody else, knows anything about him. He tells Jack all about his, Jack's, exploits as a gunfighter, how Jack is a legendary gunfighter, but not a LEGEND. In order to do that, Nobody says Jack will have to take on 150 men at once: the Wild Bunch.

The character of Nobody in this movie is about like a 7 year old who suddenly grows up but is still a 7 year old at heart believing in good guys and bad guys and heroes. He likes to be seen, even if some don't share his enthusiasm, and worships the ground Jack walks on, wishing he were walking on that same ground.

Taking Hill's energetic performance from the Trinity films, Fonda's experience from playing characters in westerns many times, and the flavor so traditionally pumped into Italian westerns and the end result is a fantastic story rife with boyhood fantasies of gunslingers. My Name is Nobody turns the traditional western on its ear as a successful comedy, then uprights it again being as good as any western ever made, and yet offering something so unique.

I give it 5 Daggers. Not only is it supremely entertaining, it is also eminently rewatchable.

Availability

Blu-ray and DVD

The Bad News Bears (1976): Not Holding Up Well

The Bad News Bears (1976) - Oh what a time it was in the 1970s to be a kid acting like you were all grown up, and you had a movie that treated you the same way. Times do change and a movie that seemed fun then is a little scary now.

Walter Matthau stars as a former minor league baseball player, and current alcoholic; apparently beer tastes even better when you pour hard liquor in it. Surviving as a pool cleaner he is given the opportunity to coach a misfit little league team while being illegally paid for it under the table. Adding to the cast is Tatum O'Neal as a girl pitcher with a rocket arm and Jackie Earle Haley as a juvenile delinquent with amazing athletic skills the rest of the team of misfits lacks.

What sets The Bad News Bears apart from any other little league movie is these kids acted like major league players with wanton swearing, fighting, spitting and even consuming alcoholic beverages. For the time, and probably for many parents still today, it was funny seeing kids behave this way. Certainly for a lot of kids it was what they would like to get away with; not exactly a movie filled with role models.

Most uncomfortable with The Bad News Bears is the way the kids are treated, and often brutally, by the adults in the movie. From slapping to outright hitting, to giving them beer. For the time it was made some critics praised it for its brutal honesty. Brutal it is in its treatment of children, but it's still funny and entertaining if you can and are willing to look past that.

I give it 3 Daggers for its entertainment value, but I would not recommend it.

Fantom Kiler (1998): Extreme Misogynistic Erotic Horror

It seems fitting to start off with my first review on this blog with the movie that is the source of my pseudonym, The Fantom Reeler.

Fantom Kiler (1998) - Directed by Roman Nowicki and starring a bevy of people I have no idea who they are. I will be sharing no screen captures because I just can't find much that can be shared and keep this blog at a maximum of a PG-13 rating. Heck, I'm not too sure I could keep an R-rating with images from this movie. It is clearly X-rated.

A killer wearing a white mask, with the appearance of bandages fully covering his face, goes about killing women in a Polish city. Naturally the police are stumped about his identity, because it's in the script, and for that matter so is the audience.

Fantom Kiler takes extreme liberties with naked women and excessive violence. Who knew a woman's clothes could fall off so easily as though they were made of tissue paper? Atmospheric this is, and I'm not talking about all the naked flesh. The killer seems to find the right place to do his misdeeds where there happens to be a graveyard, rising fog, and of course at night.

You don't have to ask if this movie is misogynistic, it is right up front with that even from the DVD cover. If it was just women getting naked, no I would not call that misogynistic, but it goes beyond that in not only portraying women as slutty, just because they're women, but as somehow deserving what happens to them. Of course the movie does hide behind the excuse that this is the view of the person responsible for the killings, because in a way we're seeing this through his eyes.

Now you may think I'm trashing this movie. True, it is prurient trash to an extreme, but that's its audience and it succeeds in being the sleaze it aims to be and something that will keep your teenage son from coming out of his room for a week for lack of the ability to walk straight.

It's not quite porn, but if you are wanting sleaze without apologies for how it is presented, this delivers. If you are looking for something that is also sensitive to its subject matter, avoid this because you will be offended.

I give it 3 Daggers purely for succeeding at being an entertaining sleaze fest. Do keep in mind that this is in Polish with subtitles; though I don't think you'll be spending much time reading if this appeals to you.