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)
A fun B movie style horror film from the mid 80’s about radiation transforming down-and-outs living underground into cannibalistic monsters that made a nice change from the slasher films of the time. Daniel Stern and John Heard don’t take things (or themselves) to seriously and Heard must have realised by this point in his career that the big time had passed him by.
Conquest (Region 2)
I’ve always though of Lucio Fulci as a poor man’s Dario Argento, not bad (at least not all the time) but not great. While his best films were either horror or giallo he’d have a go at almost anything – westerns, comedies, thrillers and even a bit of sword and sorcery as he does here.
Sadly it’s pretty awful, with a minuscule plot, poor dubbing and special effects that make Pertwee era Doctor Who look like Star Wars.
Archers Adventure (Region 2)
If this tale of a racehorse’s journey overland across
Australia had been made by Disney it would have been full of lovable characters and heart-warming heroism but thankfully this is an Australian production and while there are certainly moments of heroism there also a much bleaker side to the story than any Disney film would have shown.
The film features a young, pre-stardom Nicole Kidman as a flirtatious farmer’s daughter and she makes the most of the fairly small part.
Not a classic but there are certainly worse ways to spend an hour and a half.
Births, Marriages and Deaths (Region 2)
This wasn’t what I was expecting after reading the blurb on the back of the box, which made it sound like a thriller series about three friends who commit a murder on a stag night and that’s not really an accurate description of this series. Consequently it took a little while to adjust but by the end of part two I was hooked.
Ray Winstone is great at playing lovable rogues and incredibly unpleasant characters. At the start it seems like Alan will be one of the former but by the finale it’s become clears he’s definitely the latter. The climax at a wedding anniversary party with the guests in, appropriately, Roman togas brings everything to a head brilliantly.
And Maggie O’Neill singing ‘I Will Survive’ over the end credits gives a last laugh to a perfect combination of drama and comedy.
A Killing Affair (Region 2)
Not a bad film thanks mainly to a good performance from Peter Weller. He plays a drifter looking for work who we know has killed one man and may have murdered his whole family with an axe. He holds Kathy Baker hostage (it’s her husband he’s killed) and it’s through their relationship that we discover the troubled past of both characters.
The direction of the film is uninspired and it looks like a TV movie, it’s not helped by a very poor DVD transfer with colours so washed out that it almost looks black and white at times.
This was made the year before Weller got his big break with Robocop and it’s not hard to see why he went on to better things.
The Big Easy (Region 2)
A decent thriller that benefits from the obvious chemistry between Quaid and Barkin. Sadly Ned Beatty is underused as the leader of the corrupt cops that Barkin is trying to bring down but he makes the most of an underwritten part. Director  Jim McBride should have made more of the New Orleans locations; apart from the opening shots and the funny accents this could be set anywhere.
The 80’s was a bad time for thrillers, being replaced by over the top action movies and this was one of the better ones and even this has to go for the big explosive finale.
Some very nice Cajun music on the soundtrack and Quaid gets to give his tonsils a workout as well.
American Gothic (Region 2)
Crazy tale of a group of friends whose seaplane crashes in the Pacific near an island and the sole occupants are Rod Steiger, Yvonne De Carlo and their three mentally defective kids (one played by rent-a-nutter Michael J. Pollard). Needless to say they have a funny way of welcoming visitors.
It’s hard to tell if this is a comedy horror film or just so bad it’s accidentally funny. To see two once great Hollywood stars reduced to this is a little sad.
Friday The 13th (Region 1)
The heartrending tale of how a parent copes with the grief of losing a child in a terrible accident.
The film that opened the floodgates for the slasher films of the 80’s still stands as one of the best of its type. It’s not high art but it does what it sets out to do and does it well.
This was the first 18 (or X as it was then) rated film I saw at the cinema and as such it has a special place in my heart. And no I wasn’t 18 at the time.
Friday The 13th Part 2 (Region 1)
Steve Miner gets promoted from associate producer to director and does a better job than Sean Cunningham. He wrings as much suspense as he can from the film by realising that we know these people are going to die so the only question is where Jason is going to come from. It’s a ploy that works at least for the most part.
The cast do a fair job with the standard teen victim parts although it’s a little disappointing that a lot of them have gone into town when the mayhem starts as it misses out on the opportunity for some wholesale slaughter.
It’s only at the end that the film disappoints, with a bizarre climax that leaves you wondering what the hell happened.
Friday The 13th Part 3 (Region 1)
It’s hard to believe that this was directed by the same man who made part two as there is a complete absence of suspense with the exception of the opening sequence. The film also ignores the ending to the previous film, finishing the recap at the beginning with Jason still in his little shack, leaving out the part where he comes through the window at the end of the second film.
Steve Miner isn’t helped by the film having originally been made in 3D (during one of Hollywood’s periodic attempts to get the idea off the ground) and thus has to have things flying or poking out of the screen every five minutes, or by a truly terrible cast playing paper thin characters and delivering clichéd dialogue from a dumb script.
The worst thing about the film is the ending that rips off the first film by having a woman come out of the water to grab the only survivor. Who the hell is she supposed to be? Jason’s mum? It’s just to stupid for words.
The films only plus point comes from giving us the iconic image of Jason in the hockey mask for the first time.
Friday The 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter (Region 1)
A return to form after the terrible third film that also marks the return of Tom Savini. Savini had worked with the director Joseph Zito on the superior slasher film The Prowler (aka Rosemary’s Killer) a few years before.
There’s little suspense generated as we know by now that most of the characters will die at some point but the murders are well executed and Savini provides some nice gory effects.
We even get some people who can actually act this time and a couple who would go on to bigger and better things – Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover (whose dance alone is worth seeing the film for). And we also get lots of naked female flesh something that was (sadly) absent from part three.
Of course this wasn’t the final chapter, not even half way in fact, and the ending sets the scene for the following years A New Beginning.
Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning (Region 1)
It may be a new beginning but sadly it’s a return to the poor quality of part 3. This time the characters are even worse and they’ve found actors with even less talent to play them.
This is probably the worst film in the series and certainly the worst so far. No Jason, no gore, no point really.
Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (Region 1)
I’m starting to see a pattern here, even numbers good odd numbers (with the exception of part one) bad.
Choosing to ignore the ending of the previous film, where Tommy was about to take over from Jason, this turns him into the hero. Although it’s all his fault anyway for digging up Jason’s grave and then stabbing him with a metal railing so he can be struck by the lightning that brings him back to life. That sounds crazy (and it is) but this film embraces the craziness. It’s like the old Universal Frankenstein films and the ways they had of bringing the monster back for the next film and Jason by this point is as iconic a figure as Karloff’s Frankenstein (the film even references Karloff at one point).
There’s a nice streak of dark humour running though the film, something absent from previous entries and writer director Tom McLoughlin obviously has a lot of affection for the series.
And to top things off we get Alice Cooper singing the theme song!
Tags: Giorgio Moroder, Lucio Fulci, Ned Beatty, Friday The 13th
Is ‘Births, Marriages and Deaths’ widescreen (as broadcast) or, as every etailer has it, full screen? Decent transfer on ‘The Big Easy’?
Hi John
Nice to know someone’s reading.
‘Births, Marriages and Deaths’ is indeed widescreen and looks great. The version I have is part of the Ray Winstone Collection, a five disc set that also includes ‘Vincent’ and ‘Henry VIII’ and is currently in the HMV sale for the bargain price of £7.99.
The Big Easy’s transfer is anamorphic and from a decent print but the picture could look a lot sharper. I’d call it passable rather than decent but, as it can be found for under a fiver, it’s hard to complain too much
Blimey; worth it for BMDs alone; ordered, many thanks!