PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Mayday Series 1 2013

Mayday Series 1 2013 Written by Ben Court and Caroline Ip, directed by Brian Welsh.

I watched all of Mayday and it was a lot like Broadchurch. Way more drama than policing, way too many pregnant pauses, way too much staring off into the distance. It could have been a 90 min movie instead of five 45 min episodes. It’s way too slow for me, so I speed it up a bit after the first episode. There’s only a hint of magic but there is retribution from the grave. Too many red herrings and too many oddball characters. I got a good laugh in the 3^rd episode but have forgotten what the joke was already. I don’t begrudge watching it, I never know if I’m going to find that gem of a show I’m always hoping for. I’m not going to keep it.

Friday Night Movies 1007

Samurai Wolf 1966 Written by Hideo Gosha and Kei Tasaka, directed by Hideo Gosha. The movie is packed in a recent Blu-ray with Samurai Wolf 2. Gosha has directed a good number of movies. I've only seen the 1971 Yakuza film The Wolves and that was fairly good. It's a modern day story and nothing to do with the Samurai Wolf series.

A ronin who calls himself Wolf gets caught up in a fight between the blind lady who runs the postal station and the local baddie. The blind lady has to move 30,000 pieces of gold from her station to the next station. The local baddie and the horrible woman who runs the brothel want that money. Many die before the story ends.

It's very similar type of story like you'd find in Zatoichi movies. Isao Natsuyagi is OK as the Wolf and the rest of the cast is fine. There's plenty of fights and a stack of bodies when the movie is done. Plenty of vacancies for new baddies the day after the movie. The score is heavily influenced by Italian Western music, it's rather noisy. Over all I liked the movie. Looking forward to the second Wolf movie.

Monster Party 2018 Written and directed by Chris Von Hoffman.

Casper, Iris and Dodge are three house robbers who steal from the rich. Casper is in dire need of $100,000 to pay off his father's gambling debts or the baddie will light his dad on fire. The trio decide to rob a mansion posing as replacement catering staff for a fancy dinner party. They figure out where the safe is and create a plan of action.

Things don't go so well once they start the plan. Turns out the house is filled with psychopaths and murders celebrating their not murdering anyone in a while. Like addicts who haven't had a drink or taken some drugs the urge is still inside. The urge takes over and poor Dodge is the first to go. The fight for survival is on and Casper turns out a dab hand with a katana. It's touch and go for Casper but he has some help from the daughter of their host.

It starts off a bit pokey and I didn't care that much for the trio of robbers. It picks up once the house guests start showing their true colors. I wound up enjoying it more than I thought I would. I did enjoy the movie's sense of humor but I don't think I'll pick up the Blu-ray.

Faster 2010

Faster 2010 Written by Tony Gayton and Joe Gayton, directed by George Tillman Jr. Dwayne Johnson on a revenge fueled murder spree.

Dwayne leaves prison and murders a man in an office. Next he kills a guy who makes snuff films. Dwayne then get attacked by the guy who's been hired to kill him. The cops are after him too. They found out he'd been double crossed during a robbery. Thieves, huh.

By the end of the movie Dwayne has killed most everyone he set out to finish off. By then I didn't care that much. It's got a good bit of action and plenty of bodies but I didn't connect much with Dwayne or the other sympathetic characters. I doubt I'd rewatch the DVD I have. Oh Well.

Let The Corpses Tan 2017

Let The Corpses Tan 2017 Based on Laissez bronzer les cadavres by Jean-Patrick Manchette and Jean-Pierre Bastid, screenplay and direction by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani. A French and Belgium production mostly filmed in Corsica.

A gang of thieves steal 250KG of gold. The police give chase. There's a big gun battle and plenty of running about. Some odd ball characters stir the pot and cause some trouble.

It's very stylish with a complicated story that isn't well told. Corsica was nice. I didn't think it was anything much more than average. I gave it a 5 against it's 6.2 on the IMDb.

Furie 2019

Furie 2019 Written by and directed by Le-Van Kiet. A Vietnamese action film.

Hai Phượng is a ex-gangster and single mother. He's lives in a small town in the countryside and collects debts for a woman. Hai Phượng has a daughter called Mai. The daughter is kidnapped by gangsters and Hai Phượng chases her all the way to Saigon, with the reluctant help of the police the daughter is rescued and the baddies beaten up.

After a bit of set up the daughter is kidnapped and the fighting starts. For the rest of the film it's pretty much chase and fight. It's a fairly good film with good gritty action, a fair bit of which is on a train. It was enjoyable, despite it's rather dark story line, and I'd be happy to watch it again. 

The Burnt Orange Heresy 2019

The Burnt Orange Heresy 2019 Based on the Charles Willeford novel of the same name, screenplay by Scott Smith, directed by Giuseppe Capotondi.

An art critic gets involved with a plan to steal a painting from a reclusive painter. Since it's a Willeford story everything with the plan goes wrong and people start dying. It's a fairly straight forward story and fairly well told. I'd probably watch it again but it would be a while.

Friday Night Movies 941

Slaughterhouse Rules 2018 Screenplay by Henry Fitzherbert and Crispian Mills, directed by Crispian Mills. First production from Stolen Picture, a company formed by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Simon Pegg is is Mr Houseman, a teacher at a fancy upscale private school. Michael Sheen is the greedy head of school. He's made a deal with frackers to drill for oil shale out in the woods. He bans the students from the woods.

Finn Cole plays a Northern working class student called Donald. His mother signs him up for the school without his knowing about it. Donald's not happy going there, it's a stereotypical English boarding school with secrets, class and bullying.

A giant sinkhole opens in the woods. The fracking also releases methane gas. It makes a nice green flame when lit. It turns out there's something down there and it's come up for a look. Most of the students are lucky, they've gone home for the weekend. Poor Donald has to stay and be bullied by his house Prefect.

I enjoyed the heck out of it. I enjoyed the in-jokes referring to other famous school films. There's plenty of comedy and some gory bits. It gets a 5.3 on the IMDb, I gave it a 6 because it's better than a 5. I bought the DVD from Hamilton Books sight unseen, glad I did, I'd watch it again sometime.

Polterheist 2018 Written by David Gilbank, Gemma Head and Paul Renhard, directed by David Gilbank.

Boxy and Tariq are a couple of lowlifes that work for Frank. They collect money from the gang's drug dealers, money Frank has been stealing. Frank's boss Uday wants that money, he's going to kill Boxy and Tariq if they don't show up with the cash in four days. The problem is Boxy just killed Frank, he was holding Frank's head underwater to make him spill where the money is and things got out of hand.

The pair get the idea to kidnap a medium who can supposedly talk to the dead. She can find out from Frank where the money is. Frank takes over the woman's body and leads the pair on a chase for the cash. It doesn't go so well for Boxy and Tariq but the medium gets away with a nice payout.

It's violent and humorous. I thought it was better than the 4.2 it gets on the IMDb. That's been screwed with by the voters, 16% voted it a 10 and 18% voted it a 1. There's complaints in the comments about the reviews. I'd watch it again.

In Order Of Disappearance 2016

In Order Of Disappearance 2016 Written by Kim Fupz Aakeson, directed by Hans Petter Moland. The Norwegian film that was remade in the US as Cold Pursuit. I enjoyed that so I ordered the original. CP was directed by the same director but has an American screenwriter.

Stellan Skarsgård plays a snow plow driver in a fictional town in Norway. His son is murdered by some drug dealers with an overdose of heroin. Stellan goes after the gang and the movie shows us the death of each gang member in the order they were killed.

Nice and neat, that's how Stellan wraps the bodies of the gang members he tosses over a huge waterfall. Not so nice and neat is the death of the last of the gang. That end scene made me laugh in the remake. The same thing happens in the original and it made me laugh all over again. I know I'll want to watch both versions of the film all over again.

Friday Night Movies 938

Project Gutenberg 2018 Written and directed by Felix Chong.

Aaron Kwok is a counterfeiter who reveals his story to the police. Aaron says he was recruited by the mysterious man called the Painter. Big money is a good lure and Aaron creates a really good counterfeit $100 US bill. The Painter is a violent man who murders a lot of people while obtaining the materials he needs to print the bills. There's a lot of time devoted to Aaron's relationship with an artist called Yuen Man. It's hard to keep a relationship going when you're a criminal.

It's a 130 min movie that moves at a crawl. They spend a long time describing the counterfeiting process in minute detail. There's a complicated story that turns out to be partially a lie. It gets a bit like The Usual Suspects with a big lie on top of some facts. I liked it some but not enough to run out and buy a copy. An Asian DVD is about 20 bucks on eBay and the Blu-ray is $40 to $75. It's on Amazon Prime for free with membership. You can also see a good copy on YouTube, link above.

To Sleep So As T0 Dream 1986 Written and directed by Kaizô Hayashi. First movie by the writer director. I've not seen any of his other films. We watched the Blu-ray.

Two private eyes get hired to look for a woman. That's about the extent of normal in the film. It's complicated and fairly interesting but hard to describe without many words, that seems wrong for a mostly silent movie. You can see a copy on YouTube, it's a bit dark but you can figure what's going on fine. I might watch it again, at 1.5 speed, but I'm not going to buy the Blu-ray.

Shutter Island 2010

Shutter Island 2010 Based on Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane, screenplay by Laeta Kaloridis, directed by Martin Scorsese.

Somehow I have wound up with a copy of Shutter Island. Not something I'm that interested in but I watched it to see if I should keep it or pass it on. It's a sad psychological thriller that wasn't much fun. I'll probably get rid of it.