Thanks so much for playing along! And tune in February 2009 to see what kind of nonsense I come up with to celebrate our fourth birthday.
Snake People
(Eclectic DVD)
For those that maintain there could not possibly be a movie worse than Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter, Eclectic DVD unintentionally presents Exhibit A: Snake People; coincidentally, or not so coincidentally, one of the last movies Boris Karloff ever starred in. (I'm not saying his death is in any way related to the shame of being in this movie, but the facts are what they are.) I would like to think I went into watching this with an open mind, but what would be a more accurate statement is that I was hoping it would be good because I like the movie poster art and tag line (Voodoo rituals… on an island of evil!) and Karloff's in it. Even at the ripe old age of 33 I can be so naive. After watching the movie I can honestly say I still like the poster art and tag line and Karloff is definitely in this movie. (In fact he has two roles, he's the loving uncle of the movie's heroine and the male leader of the cult of snake worshippers.) Other than that Snake People's points of distinction are few and far between. Even the people responsible for writing the box cover copy were hard pressed to come up with good things to say about the film, or even any way to describe the plotline, offering only the following two sentences: "Boris Karloff's psycho-sexual '60s voodoo masterpiece co-directed by Jack Hill in an all new digital transfer. Tongolele's erotic snake-dance is not to be missed!!" Tongolele, she of the "erotic" snake dance, is the witchy female priestess yin to the evil Karloff character's yang. Not only does she boogie with reptiles, she can cause things to spontaneously combust by staring at them intently. (I know, how come there's no ring on her finger? She's obviously the most eligible black magic voodoo broad around for miles.) I probably could have stood to miss her dance but, truth be told, I am no connoisseur of snake dancing - erotic or otherwise. I did appreciate her overall kind of gothic Cleopatra look though. The pre-requisite Halloween costume-esque bikini top, belt with jangly stuff on it and those weird bracelets that go around the bicep offset her black liquid eyeliner and Lily Munster meets Lauren Ezersky shock of silver hair well. I think she could stand to ease up on the eyebrow tweezing but that's just me. She certainly did give the movie some zing, which it sorely needed. Sadly no amount of exotic gyrating could save this flick.
The Window
(Ghost Limb Films)
I got kind of an art school / European film type vibe from the brief description on the box ("Sights, sounds and other perpetrators haunt a New York City apartment dweller.") so I elected to write this review while watching it. Go for a more stream of consciousness kinda thing. Why? I don't know, I just thought it would make it more interesting… for me. Anywhoo, here we go. The setting: bleak. The dialogue: non-existent. The plot: I think they covered it in that box quote but since we're here I'll add a little detail. Man lives in apartment. Man hears noises in his apartment. Sawing, cats, the sounds of general unrest, that sort of thing. Man looks for noise. Finds nothing. Man closes window. Goes to bed. Noises persist. Then there is daylight. Noises are more pleasant. Typing this does seem to take my mind off how uninteresting the film is but my main thought right now is: seriously, I am not watching seventeen minutes and nine seconds of this. When I look back up, I see man has awakened. Man is hairy and in his underpants. His underpants are too small. I find them unpleasant. I type this to avoid watching it. Man hears something. I catch a glimpse of the man with some sort of bat like object in his hand; maybe it's a bat. I'm thinking he's gonna hit something with it… and I'm right. He hits a rat. The rat writhes. He covers the rat with a napkin or something and hits it again. Now he's throwing the rat out the window. I think I've seen enough.
The Orbitrons 2000
(Ghost Limb Films)
From the company that brought me the above film, The Window, which I didn't like too much, comes The Orbitrons 2000 - a film I liked a whole lot more. Judging by the box description again, ("From a world where women wear the pants…") I figured that would be the case. This, as the title implies, is more of a SCI-FI thing and, much to my delight, kind of a modern day Ed Wood movie in form, function and execution. Set in the gritty streets of Newark, New Jersey, the plot involves around a guy named Tom Kubosh. He just wants to be left alone to indulge himself in his favorite yearly ritual - masturbating in the cemetery where he first jerked off - but poor Tom's luck just ain't working that way. He gets hassled by the man on the way to the cemetery and, after getting his butt kicked by some donut & hooch loving pigs, it just gets worse. He witnesses a spaceship landing, sees zombies he knew from high school (presumably they were human back then) and uncovers a sinister plot about to be unhatched by evil space Goddess Starleatha. Will chaos rule the day? Will Earth survive? Will Tom live to enjoy the simple pleasures of life like riding his Harley and beating off in semi-public places? Brave B-movie fans that dare to track this down will just have to find out for themselves. Other points of note: this flick had a cool soundtrack by a bunch of bands I've never heard of, an unusual amount of exposed male genitalia in a non-porn film (an unusual amount being any; it was really just one penis being bared a few times - the Kommandant thinks it may have been a stunt cock but hey, stunt cock is still a lot more cock than you'll see in any major motion picture which is why I'm mentioning it) and the clothing was provided by Agatha Blois, who is also involved in a clothing line called Submission Inc., co-owned by my friend and neighbor Kim Montenegro.
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