Archive for July, 2006

or what I watched this week.

White Comanche

William Shatner as half-breed Comanche twins. Isn’t that sentence enough to make you want to see this? It did me.

Unfortunately, what we get is a cheap Spanish (a paella western?) production that not only wastes the talents of Shatner (in his prime between seasons of Star Trek) but those of Joseph Cotton as well.

The story is a simple one – good twin, bad twin, only one will live to see the end credits. The film isn’t helped by a DVD that has obviously been made from a video master and not just any video but one that’s been chewed up in several places. There also seems to be something wrong with the score, it sound like it’s a replacement not the original as it doesn’t fit with the onscreen action, sometimes going for comedy in dramatic moments. It’s either the wrong music or one of worst score I’ve ever heard.

On the plus side Shat’s looks good in cowboy gear (although less convincing as the bad brother in Indian getup) and it’s a shame he never got a better chance to show what he could really do in a western.

The American West of John Ford

This was on the same disc as White Comanche and came as a nice bonus as the front cover only lists it as The American West and I’d assumed it was just another old western (there are four films on the disc in total).

Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood (Region 1)

Or as it was no doubt pitched to the studio execs Jason meets Carrie as Jason comes up against a girl with telekinetic powers. Sticking to the rule (even good, odd bad) this is a pretty poor entry in the series, it may be called The New Blood but there’s precious little on display. Even the showdown between Jason and Car…sorry, Tina isn’t really up to much and the surprise ending runs part three a close second in the dumb idea stakes.

On the plus side this did give us the commanding presence of Kane Hodder as Jason for the first time and the make up when his mask is removed is pretty good.

Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (Region 1)

This breaks the trend of even numbered films being the good ones although I suppose it deserves some credit for trying something different. The title is a misnomer really; Jason Takes A Cruise would be a more fitting one as he takes an hour to arrive in New York. Even when he does finally arrive it wastes good opportunities for action; when confronted by a street gang, instead of killing them, Jason just shows them his face under the hockey mask and they run away. It’s a moderately amusing moment but hardly what the film needs. There are a couple of funny scenes, the best coming when Jason arrives in Manhattan and finds himself confronted by a billboard featuring a hockey mask.

A round up of the weeks viewing.

Cat People (Region 2)

Paul Schrader’s film is a good example of how to do a remake. While the core of the story is the same almost everything else has changed, with the addition of the brother character and the incest element being the biggest differences.

The casting is excellent, Malcolm McDowell and Nastassja Kinski actually look enough alike to be believable as brother and sister and both give great performances. As does John Heard as the zoo curator who falls in love with Irena, this was the time I though he was destined for major stardom having made the excellent Cutter’s Way the year before but he’s ended up a reliable character actor instead.

Possibly the best thing about the film is Giorgio Moroder’s score that, even though it’s very 80’s, still sounds great and there’s even my favorite David Bowie song to accompany the end credits. There are also some pretty good make-up effects by Tom Burman who’d worked his way up through the slasher films of the early 80’s

And we get Ed Begley Jr singing the correct song (What’s New Pussycat?) just before getting his arm ripped off unlike the old VHS release that had the song replaced for copyright reasons.

C.H.U.D (Region 1)