My Review Of "Even The Rain"

Even The Rain is a chilling foreign film about a group of film makers shooting a movie about Christopher Columbus in Bolivia. There is a lot of politics involved with Even The Rain that connects it back to Christopher Columbus through symbolism. I really enjoyed the aesthetic values of the film, especially the way the making of a film was portrayed within a film. There is a very intense sequence where the film makers are watching a finished scene of footage they shot for their Christopher Columbus film. You feel as if you are in the editing room watching the final scene of their viscous film, and then the camera pulls back to reveal them all in the theater sitting and watching. I enjoyed some of the actors in the film as well, particularly Costa and Daniel. Both actors brought a lot of depth to their performance that made them easy to identify with. Both characters showed a vast amount of courage that most of us would like to identify with as well. The film does a good job of splitting up which parts are scenes of the actual film and what scenes are parts of the Christopher Columbus movie. As I already mentioned, the film was very politically motivated. The Bolivian government are trying to put huge taxes on water, and keeping it away from the Bolivian citizens. The city breaks out into protests and riots resulting in a city wide civil war. The story of Christopher Columbus mistreating natives is symbolism for the water issues in Bolivian, towards the end of the film it switches focal points completely and is all about the political aspects. This transaction actually goes a lot more smoothly than it sounds. Over all, I really enjoyed Even The Rain and felt that it was an enlightening film. I highly recommend it.

My Review Of "Hunger"

Hunger is a very powerful film about inmates of an Irish political prison. This is more an art film than the traditional film made for entertainment. I find it difficult for someone to enjoy watching this film, though I could totally understand liking it and learning from it. Hunger has very strong performances that really don’t use or even require lots of dialogue to push their emotions. Most of the story is told with a visual approach. That being said, Hunger uses impeccable technique in terms of storytelling as well as the filmmaking process. My absolute favorite scene in this film was a split screen shot that showed the Irish inmates being savagely beaten by British police, while on the other side one of the British officers was in a separate room with his helmet in his hand because he was crying. In the beginning of the film there are some absolutely gorgeous shots of the prison warden standing outside in the snow smoking a cigarette. In many films today you don’t see that sort of detail given to such a simple scene. Hunger had many scenes of brutal horror that would take someone with a good tolerance to stomach. One particularly horrid scene is when the prisoners are being viciously beaten while they are naked, and then the prison warden proceeds to cut off their hair with a large pair of scissors. They are given uniforms to wear but they resist, and eventually this leads to a hunger strike, with many scenes of brutal torture and rebellion in between. There is a very long dialogue scene that is one shot the entire time, this scene may be boring to some as we are used to so much movement and visual stimuli, but none the less it is extremely impressive. I would recommend Hunger to fans of art films and the Criterion Collection DVD series.  

My Review Of "Gomorrah"

Gomorrah is an Italian crime film based on the factual criminal organization, he Camorra. Apparently the Camorra is a larger group and even more ruthless than the Sicilian Mafia. I really enjoyed Gomorrah because it is my style of foreign film, but also because I am an Italian America. Growing up I always heard about the Sicilian Mafia of course but it was very interesting to see a more factual representation of crime in Italy. One aspect I really enjoyed about Gomorrah is the way it reminded me of a 1970s crime-horror film. The film is very nihilistic the whole way through, especially the ending. It has a very dark and grimy feeling throughout, especially with the sets and locations. The film makers did a great job of capturing the dark side of Italy. Crime films in America are very much glamorized, and they make the mobsters look really cool to put it honestly. In many of the American crime films the mobsters are made out to be the heroes of the film, usually playing a dual role of a hero and a criminal. Another aspect of Gomorrah I really enjoyed was the way it followed multiple characters throughout the story, yet they were all very connected. You don’t see that in too many films but I feel it makes a great plot device. According to many of the others in our class, they felt extremely disconnected to the characters. Maybe they haven’t been exposed to struggle like this before, but for whatever reason I felt more connected to the characters in this film than many of the other films that we watched. Over all, I found that Gomorrah was a very interesting film, and although it was a very dark film I thoroughly enjoyed it. I understand how it could be really heavy for some people though. I highly recommend it to experimental, foreign, and crime film enthusiast.

Short Bus & Exploitation

Short Bus was a very exploitive film that dealt with all different types of sexual frustration and exploration, but was it sexploitation? It could easily go both ways depending on the viewer. Either way it is an interestingly realistic portrayal of sex in film. I hate sex scenes in most film, except maybe some select horror films, because it is very fake. All the cleverly shot romantic scenes make it look so artificial; in fact I find it easy to laugh at. In Short Bus, the sex was just down right believable. I would not be surprised at all if you were to tell me that many of the actors were truly having sex or engaged in a sexual relationship. So that brings out the big question, is it pornographic? In my opinion, it is not, but that does not mean it isn’t exploitation. Is a film like “I Spit on Your Grave” pornographic? Not at all, but it is still exploitation. Now there is still a particular type of person that may find either of these films pornographic and sexually arousing, but I don’t think either could appeal to the normal human being. Now just because something is sexually exploitive doesn’t make it wrong, just possibly inappropriate or offensive. I would not suggest Short Bus to children, or those sexually embarrassed or repressed. Short Bus could be very enjoyable and enlightening for the correct audience though. One aspect I really enjoyed is that it has something to exploit everyone’s sexual interests. There is a character for just about every sex act or sexual orientation you could think of, which makes it all the more exploitive. As I stated before though, there still is some substance here along with deep characters rich in conflict. Short Bus may not be sexploitation in the classic Russ Meyer sense, but there’s a little something to offend everyone.

How I Can Relate To "Bamboozled"

Bamboozled is a film about stereotypes, especially African American stereotypes. I must admit, I thoroughly enjoyed this film, although I found it irritating. It was irritating because this is a very racist film; it exploits racism in order to make the point that racism is wrong. Being a huge fan of exploitation films, I can totally understand this. It was done in a very experimental fashion, and I was surprised by the way all these elements came together. This film also spoke to me on a more personal level than most of the other films I’ve reviewed or analyzed on this blog; that is because personally am very against using the “N” word. This is something I feel no person should say, black or white. Using the word in current times is very ignorant in my eyes. Believe it or not it was actually hip hop that got me so aware of the word. I went to a high school where all people black, white, Latin, etc. all used the “N” word and there was racism from time to time. Hip hop unifies people of all races. I am a white Italian American and I am involved in a hip hop group with all types of people of all different backgrounds. We refuse to use the “N” word in our music. We also feel that all the mainstream hip hop artist excessively using the “N” word are only hurting hip hop by spreading racism around the word. It was quite easy for me to identify with the character of 1/16^th Black who was portrayed but MC Serch of 3^rd Bass. It was also interesting to see other hip hop icons like Canibus and Mos Def portraying their view of racism and stereotypes in the film as well. I feel this is a film that many people need to see, and the plot could easy be written around a different race with the same events. In that sense, to me, Bamboozled is universal.

Killer Joe: Analysis Of The Conclusion

Killer Joe is a film about a dysfunctional white trash family who hire a cop who is also an assassin to kill their mother, who we never get to meet until after the killing. Once the job is done they don’t have the means to pay off Killer Joe, so he takes the youngest female, Dottie, for collateral. Once that happens this film travels down a twisted path, one that people have both loved and hated. I honestly thought this was a very good film up until the very ending scene. It was a huge drop off ending that did not explain anything. Unless William Friedkin is planning on making a direct sequel then I do not understand the point of using that ending. For this article I will be spoiling it. The 13 year old girl Dottie has been having a sexual relationship with Killer Joe as a way to pay him back for his services. There is a huge fight scene because Killer Joe and Dottie are going to get married, and Joe finds out that the wife was involved in the murder plot to collect on the insurance money, she in cheating on her husband with the husband of the dead mother. After the huge fight Dottie admits that she is pregnant, suprising everyone. She takes a gun and kills her brother and shoots her father in the stomach. She does not shoot Killer Joe or the step mother. That’s it, that’s how the film ends. This in my opinion is one of the worst endings to a film that I have seen in a long time. I did not understand why Friedkin would choose such a dull, inconclusive ending for a film that had such an intense rising action. I would really like to hear a long explanation from the director about what the ending means, why it ended that way, and how he decided to end it that way. I am not satisfied with this inconclusive ending and it honestly ruined the whole film for me.

A Cabin In The Woods: A Horror Film Fan's Analysis

I have to be honest here, as a classic horror film fan, in the rarest of forms; I did not expect to enjoy a film like “Cabin in the Woods.” Although, I must admit, it really isn’t all that bad. It did a good job of blending comedy with horror, I found myself laughing constantly throughout the film. Most of the characters are very dry, and stereotypical, but they are supposed to be. This makes them easier to like and care for, although I struggled with that for the first half of the film. This movie is a satire of the horror genre, no doubt. And even more specifically the slasher genre. The most original addition is the worldwide corporation that sets up the traps for the teenagers. My issue with this though was that it left me wanting more explained, and I didn’t feel as if I got that. Instead the ending really trailed off from the original story, and I did not enjoy it. It was almost as if they did not know how to end the film so they threw together a passable conclusion. I did not understand the point of Sigourney Weaver’s character, or why the cabin was consumed into the center of the Earth by what is the “angry hand of the gods.” It just felt like a very manufactured and ill prepared conclusion to me. The build-up on the other hand, as stated, was quite enjoyable. You can really notice where they took inspiration right out of tons of horror classics such as Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Friday the 13^th, Children of the Corn, and Hellraiser, amongst others. As a huge horror fan I could appreciate this new era horror smash. But for a true horror fan in the purest sense, it still left some issues to be addressed.

Evil Dead 2

Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2 is an absolute horror classic adored by many fans within the horror community. It was somewhat of a pilgrimage getting to finally see this film on the big screen in 35 millimeter at the Kentucky Theater. Bruce Campbell’s performance as “Ash Williams” is one of his favorite amongst cult film fans. It’s interesting because even though Evil Dead 2 shares a very similar plot to the original, this is one of those rare cases where a sequel has been even more well received. I think this has to do with two huge factors, which are a bigger budget, and the addition of comedy. The original Evil Dead is a very dark, experimental, gruesome, and just all around grimy film. It was also very low budget. Due to the success of the original, Sam Raimi was given more freedom with Evil Dead 2. Evil Dead 2 is also a rare horror film, just because it happens to be a classic that many non-horror film fans could thoroughly enjoy. The humor is mostly in the form of slapstick and excess in cartoon violence. Sam Raimi has mentioned that he got most of the inspiration for his gags from episodes of The Three Stooges, and that many jokes are direct rip-offs of The Three Stooges. Another interesting fact is that Bruce Campbell truly does all his own stunts. Whether he is flying backwards through the haunted forest, breaking plates over his head, or tumbling down a cellar staircase; Bruce Campbell does it all. It also has classic monster and gore effects, and they are indeed excessive. It is one of the few horror films that uses gore for laughs instead of scares. Evil Dead 2 will always be remembered as one of the true horror comedy classics, adored by horror film fans everywhere.

Top 10 Film Choices

1. Dawn of the Dead (1978 Original)

2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974 Original)

3. Psycho (1960 Original)

4. A Clockwork Orange (1971)

5. The Thing (1981 John Carpenter Version)

6. Night of the Living Dead (1968 Original)

7. Taxi Driver (1976)

8. The Exorcist (1973)

9. Halloween (1978 Original)

10. Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

Rob Zombie VS. John Carpenter

After watching the complete theatrical version of Rob Zombie’s Halloween and the Kentucky Theater, I would like to do a comparison between characters in this version and John Carpenter’s original version. Let me start by saying, I though Rob Zombie’s new version had a decent start, but I soon changed my mind while sitting in the theater. The first aspect of the film to really bother was when Zombie was illustrating how the young Michael Meyers was twisted at young age due to an abusive family and bullies at school. I did not like this because it took the supernatural mystery out of the character; it made him very human, and easy to sympathize with. That is part of what made John Carpenter’s very original, because you knew nothing about Michael Meyers other than the way he killed his sister as a kid, and has been in a mental institution ever since.

    Another way that Rob Zombie’s remake fails is his adaption of the Laurie Strode character. In the original Laurie was a leader, she way easy to identify with, and easy to care for. In the new version I could not identify with the portrayal of Laurie. She was just an annoying school girl. Sure, she wasn’t sexually active and didn’t drink like the original Laurie Strode, but that wasn’t enough to feel for her character. She was very obnoxious and immature, even for a high school girl. Carpenter’s Laurie was very mature and calm, and easy to believe in. Sadly, Rob Zombie ruined the ending of this film by making a terrible mistake in the horror drama. He lost my interest in the main character. By the end of the movie I could care less whether Laurie lived or died, preferably the latter if it got her of screen quicker. This is a classic mistake in the slasher film genre. It is sad that Rob Zombie did not approach these characters in a different way, the film might have been more enjoyable, even with a standard horror movie plot.