Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ***

Jean-Luc Godard's tenth film Pierrot Le Fou, one of the last he made before going full-tilt Marxist, has been restored and reissued in the extraordinary fashion we've all come to know and respect from Criterion. The Technicolor/Cinemascope print has been cleaned up from sad, past versions and a second disc of supplemental materials offers new insights into the film's genesis, production and lasting impact.

After attending a painfully buji party where the men only talk about cars and the women only talk about perfumes, Pierrot (Jean-Paul Belmondo) decides he's had enough of his wife, children and other middle class trappings. He runs off with Marianne (Anna Karina) his children's babysitter, with whom he had an affair years prior. They hit the road, fleeing a group of gangsters her brother had been involved with, take up in abandoned mansions by the riviera, begging for money from tourists and murdering anyone who gets in their way. Eventually romantic idealism gives way to monotonous expectation and obligation and Pierrot and Marianne break up, get back together, declare their love and hate for each other and eventually die.

Continue reading "Pierrot Le Fou" »

Posted by at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reviewer: Jeffrey M. Anderson
Rating (out of 5): ****½

In 1968, director Lindsay Anderson and star Malcolm McDowell teamed up for If..., about an old, rigid English boys school attempting to mold young minds with strict control, obedience and punishment. The film had moments of absurd comedy and of drama, moments of stark realism and of blatant non-realism. Flipping back and forth from black-and-white to color footage doesn't make it any easier to pinpoint. But when it opened in that turbulent year, it tapped directly into the mood of the time and became a phenomenon, a cultural landmark. McDowell played Mick Travis, a free spirit who slowly realizes that he can't quite fit in. In the end, he and his cohorts attempt to take over the school with firearms. McDowell became a star in his first movie role, with his James Dean-type physicality, fearless and entrancing. If his confident stride didn't hypnotize you, his gleaming dagger-sharp eyes will. (Just check out his memorable entrance, swathed in black with a black hat and scarf around his face.)

After a stop to play the lead role in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971), McDowell approached Anderson about working together again. Anderson told him that good scripts don't grow on trees and that he needed to write his own, so McDowell concocted a yarn out of his own life story (even though he was only thirty). The screenwriter David Sherwin wrote the final script, and O Lucky Man! (1973) was born. It's as audacious as anything made in the 1970s, running three hours without much of a plot; it divided audiences to the same degree that If... united them.

Continue reading "O Lucky Man!" »

Posted by at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reviewer: Maria Komodore
Rating (out of 5): ****

L' Age D'Or (1930) marks not only Luis Buñuel's feature debut, but also the ill-fated ending of a rather unusual, yet extremely creative, collaboration. Having enjoyed a successful cooperation while making their much talked about short Un Chien Andalou (1928), Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, two of the most well respected surrealist artists of the era, attempted to replicate their experience. Sadly, well before L'Age was completed their friendship was fractured for good.

Supposedly, when the film opened for the first time in Paris it started a riot, which eventually led to it being banned by the French government. Even though L'Age makes little in the way of sense, at least in the linear, plot driven and conventional way that mainstream movies do, one can easily understand why it inspired such strong reactions.

Continue reading "L'Age D'Or" »

Posted by at 6:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reviewer: Maria Komodore
Rating (out of 5): ***½

Starstruck was renowned Australian director Gillian Armstrong's second feature. After making a name for herself with My Brilliant Career (1979), a romantic period drama which garnered a number of awards and critical acclaim, Armstrong apparently wanted to get involved in a completely different project to prove herself to be a versatile filmmaker. And that she did.

Made in 1982 in Sydney, Australia, Starstruck is a campy and energetic teen musical that delightfully captures a time when that country's new wave music scene was erupting. Featuring a wonderfully silly soundtrack with rock and punkish inclinations by pop band The Swingers (supposedly they were selected over INXS and Men at Work who were also interested in writing music for the film), the movie follows Jackie (Jo Kennedy) and her cousin Angus (Ross O'Donovan) as they try to sing and dance their way out of their seemingly mundane lives into a successful music career. Due to certain plots twists, which feel more as extra excuses to break out into frantic dancing than points advancing the story, things don't go exactly as planned for the two cousins, but fear not; in the end valuable lessons are learned and everybody is happy.

Continue reading "Starstruck" »

Posted by at 6:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reviewer: Monica Peck
Rating (out of 5): ***½

This 22 minute animated short based on Mike Mignola's award winning comic book has quickly ascended the 'steampunk' cult classic ladder. Ripe with 19th century banter, mystical artifacts, and technological anachronyms, The Amazing Screw-On Head takes viewers back, then sideways, to a time when the world was simpler, and yet, more bizarre.

It's no wonder that Mignola of Hellboy fame, won another Eisner Award (the "Oscars" of the comic book industry) in 2003 for The Amazing Screw-On Head under Best Humor Publication. And this is a rare brand of humor - surrealist, ironic, tongue so deep in cheek it hurts - coupled with campy plot-lines: a missing manuscript, a vile zombie villain, and a taste of apocalyptic horror. A wealth of talented comic performers add to the fun, including Molly Shannon, Patton Oswalt and Paul Giamatti. Built as a television pilot, the film stands very well on its own--perhaps too well for producers to see a series, hence the lack of follow-up from SciFi/Pulse. Producers Bryan Fuller and Jason Netter, with director Chris Prynoski and Mignola as art director, successfully matched the look and feel of the comic, much to the satisfaction of fans. In fact, the loudest complaint seems to be that television executives dropped the series. Still, there hasn't been an official word on the subject, so perhaps we can continue to hope for another installment.

Posted by at 4:42 PM | Permalink

Reviewer: Maria Komodore
Rating (out of 5): **½

The Man With the Screaming Brain marks B-Movie sensation Bruce Campbell's first attempt at filmmaking (the actor had previously directed several Hercules and Xena episodes but never a feature film), and if it's perhaps not the actor's most triumphant achievement, at least he finally realized a project that, along with producer and pal David M. Goodman, he had been struggling to finance for a little over two decades.

For some of Campbell's fans, Man might be something of a disappointment. This quite wacky film fails to stand up to the camp magnificence of the Evil Dead series, for which the actor is beloved. But the hard-to-wrap-one's-mind-around plot and the confusing, disturbing, and mind-boggling implications it makes, should not be taken lightly. Campbell plays William Cole, a pharmaceutical company CEO who travels all the way to Bulgaria in order to make an investment in an unfinished subway project that will give him a major tax break. He drags his Jackie O-look-alike wife (Antoinette Byron) along with him, thinking that the trip might refresh their dying marriage. Little does he know that they'll be joined by their former-KGB-agent taxi driver Yegor (Vladimir Kolev) and a gypsy woman named Tatoya (Tamara Gorski), to form an unruly quartet.

The overly complex story of how and when it all happens makes it hard to connect with. Suffice it to say that thanks to cuckoo Professor Dr. Ivan Ivanoff (Stacy Keach) and his recent transplant surgery breakthrough, Cole and Yegor, and Jackie and Tatoya, come to literally share the same body and brain respectively. A comment on the possibility of a peaceful co-existence between capitalism and communism? A suggestion that getting married means taming one's wild side? Or perhaps it's all simply an excuse to give Bruce Campbell an opportunity for physical acting.

Posted by at 5:29 PM | Permalink

Reviewer: James Van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): *½; add half a star if you’re a diehard Pacino fan

Shortly before and during the time that William Friedkin was shooting Cruising, the protests from the gay movement here in New York City struck me as untimely. The movie wasn't yet made: Didn't this go against the very idea of freedom of expression? I've now seen the film three times: upon its release, later on videotape and now on DVD in its much-improved, digitally re-mastered version. Protests or no, it stinks.

Seen today, the film appears almost to have been made by a crew of beginners--which is hardly the case, given the resumes of Friedkin (who acted as both director and writer/adaptor of the Gerald Walker novel on which the film is based) and his crew. From the second scene onwards, the heavily expository dialog, coupled with some terrible acting, simply embarrasses. As the film proceeds, it becomes clear that there is little "plot" per se, almost no sense of development, and the dialog remains dead--flat, expositional, and devoid of the quirks of speech that might make it seem real. The acting is mostly on the level of bad "method" (monochromatic, dreary) and this includes, I'm afraid, the lead performance of Al Pacino. When you are given no interesting dialog to work with, acting "real" can bore the pants off the average viewer.

The look of the film is bleak, seedy and mostly devoid of color--except in the apartment of the Pacino character's girlfriend Nancy (played by Karen Allen in what may be the most thankless role of her career), about whom we never learn a thing. Oddly enough, Allen is practically the only female in the film. I don't recall another movie set in a NYC so totally devoid of women. Gays actually do have female friends, but you wouldn’t glean that fact from this movie. It's all guys, all the time, mostly gays and cops, and most of these sick and unhappy. Now, I don't mind watching a movie that's dark and bleak, but I would like to be able to find some sense and meaning to it. In scene after scene, Cruising sports an air of unreality that never lifts. Its victims are characterless, the villain is essentially a cipher with but a single characteristic (the daddy issue), and the "hero"--despite his inordinate amount of screen time--is also very nearly character-free.

Continue reading "Cruising: Third Time Out and Still Not the Charm" »

Posted by at 1:19 PM | Permalink

Reviewer: Walt Opie
Rating (out of 5): ***

According to none other than acclaimed author Tom Wolfe (The Right Stuff) in Tom Thurman's documentary Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film, the gonzo journalist was one of the greatest comic writers of our time. It turns out that much of Hollywood made pilgrimages to visit Thompson at his home of many years in Woody Creek, Colorado, and many are interviewed in this engaging film, including John Cusack, Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn, Gary Busey, Ed Bradley, Bill Murray and Johnny Depp (who lived in his basement for a while and described himself as a partner in crime with Thompson after they initially bonded over their mutual hometown of Louisville, Kentucky). "If you let Thompson into your psyche, he has this way of slipping in and out from time to time and continuing to inhabit you for the rest of your life." This was the cautionary advice Murray gave Depp over the phone just before Depp played a character based on Thompson (Raoul Duke) in the 1998 film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Murray knew all too well, having already portrayed Thompson himself in the underrated 1980 cult movie Where the Buffalo Roam (which co-starred Peter Boyle and Bruno Kirby). Thompson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in February of 2005, and his ashes have since been shot out of a large cannon shaped like a two-thumbed fist (paid for by Depp and envisioned by Thompson) on the property of his Owl Farm in Woody Creek. This film (originally produced for the Starz channel) has been made as a sort of love note back to Thompson, with plenty of rarely seen, candid footage of the wily man himself, often in his kitchen telling stories or elsewhere in private settings, although his actual words are sometimes garbled and nearly indiscernible. There is likewise a rather incomprehensible narration by none other than raspy, ravaged-sounding Nick Nolte.

Continue reading "Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film" »

Posted by at 3:59 PM | Permalink

Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ****

Directed in 1982 by then NYU film student Susan Seidelman (Desperately Seeking Susan, Sex and the City), Smithereens is an inverse love story about a group of borderline homeless, fame-seekers in the wake of a punk rock scene that has just reached its high watermark. Wearing its French New Wave and Fellini influences on its sleeve, Smithereens was the first American film to be included in the Palme d'Or competition at the Cannes film festival.

Continue reading "Smithereens: Desperately seeking Seidelman" »

Posted by at 1:21 PM | Permalink

Reviewer: Dylan de Thomas
Rating (out of 5): ****

The American perception of the culture of Japan and Japanese film sometimes presents the people of that island nation as somewhat inscrutable, mystical folk - as wondrously humanistic as Ozu's films are, his protagonists can feel as metaphorically far away from contemporary American life as Japan literally is. The Japanese people that fill the films of Shohei Imamura, however, are fully human, not beholden to the ancient codes of their forefathers, working their topknots and holding intricately beautiful tea ceremonies but rather as people that scrape by and curse their parents, eat and work, kill and screw.

Based on a true story of Akira Nishiguchi (named Iwao Enokizu in the movie), a sociopathic killer who went on a 78-day crime/killing spree in 1964, Vengeance Is Mine is a bracing view of Imamura's Japan. The film itself follows a novelistic structure, opening with Enokizu's capture by the police, and then flashing back to give the viewer chapters in his life. As we then follow Enokizu (Ken Ogata) through his troubled youth, the film is vibrantly prurient, foul, melodramatic and occasionally even funny.

Continue reading "Vengeance Is Mine" »

Posted by at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ***½

Cevin D. Soling's mini-budget satire The War on the War on Drugs is already five years old, yet it is surprising how little the movie appears to have dated. But then, with nutty US government drug policy remaining the same--or worse--from year to year, decade to decade, this movie will probably seem hilarious eons from now. Often silly and almost always good-natured (despite the dark subject matter), Soling's parodies, musings, imaginings and comparisons are apt, thoughtful, amusing, alternately inspired and clunky, and occasionally gut-busting fun. Brevity is among his virtues, as well, so few scenes last longer than necessary. Toward the end, one does begin to sense that the filmmaker has begun to exhaust his supply of targets and/or ammunition. But all in all it's amusing, and, hey, a little experimenting never hurt anyone.

Posted by at 4:35 PM | Permalink

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ***

Some movies may be arty, different and interesting The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes immediately comes to mind) but not be all that enjoyable overall. Tears Of The Black Tiger manages the arty/different/interesting part, while providing enormous fun in the process. Much of this, I suspect, may be due to how little knowledge many of us western film buffs possess regarding the traditions of Thailand, its culture and film history. We may have seen some of the oddities of Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Tropical Malady), the martial-artsy Ong-Bak, a genre-jumping Beautiful Boxer or a gorgeous epic like Suriyothai (the Thai movies I can immediately bring to mind), and although the Hong Kong-born Pang brothers often film in Thailand and clearly have an appreciation of that country, this is not quite the same thing as being Thai. Consequently, when we see something as bizarre, colorful, and all-over-the-place as writer/director Wisit Sasanatieng's Tears, the experience probably approximates how viewing one’s first Bollywood extravaganza might have seemed at the time.

Continue reading "Tears of the Black Tiger: Thai yai-yai!" »

Posted by at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

GreenCine is giving away copies of the new-to-DVD film Apartment Zero to five lucky winners of our new trivia contest. The 1988 black comedy/erotic thriller, directed by Argentinian Martin Donovan (no, not that one), is set in Buenos Aires and centers around two disturbed roommates (played by Brit Colin Firth and Canadian Hart Bochner). "Creepy and original," wrote Christopher Null on Filmcritic.com. "Donovan's direction recalls Polanski and his and [David] Koepp's script exudes Hitchcock. A better combo I couldn't give you."

To be eligible for the prize, send an email with the correct answer to contest@greencine.com, including your name, email address and, if you're a GreenCine member, your username in the email, and "Apartment Zero" in the subject header. Winners will be selected at random from all correct entries. The deadline is Friday, February 23, at 12PM PST. Winners will be notified by e-mail and announced in future editions of the GreenCine Dispatch newsletter, and right here on this space.

The Question: What epic 80s mini-series did Hart Bochner star in?

Posted by at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You know him as that Texan who has long been a champion of drive-in theaters and B-movies, of "aardvarking," fu, counter of breasts. But he's also author of several fine film books, co-publisher of a renowned religious satire magazine, actor, cable TV host and, now, head of programming at a new horror network. We've got some short attention span interview fu working and Joe Bob says check it out. Interview with Joe Bob Briggs >>

Posted by at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

GreenCine has a lot to be thankful for this year, but in our film geeky way we are feeling especially thankful about the home video release of a bunch of great films that had formerly been missing in action on DVD. We've compiled some of our picks for the best films to finally see a DVD release in 2006.

Top 10 Formerly MIA DVDs of 2006 >>

Posted by at 9:24 AM | Permalink

Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ***½

At last - a DVD release of the movie young, feminist film-makers spent their formative years trading bootleg VHS copies of: Born in Flames. Made in 1983 and touted as "feminist science fiction, Lizzie Borden's Born in Flames is set in the grimy streets of a pre-Giulliani NYC but ten years after a peaceful social revolution that had ostensibly made all Americans equal. However, women are still facing a disproportionate level of violence that the police and local government don't acknowledge ("after all, ladies, you already had your revolution!")

Continue reading "Born In Flames" »

Posted by at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reviewer:Jonathan Marlow
Rating (out of 5): ***½

"Nine killed her, nine will die!"

Robert Fuest is one of the greatest directors you've never heard of. From his days as helmsman for a handful of episodes on the ground-breaking television show The Avengers, on to his brief attempt at Eurotrash with the fabulous And Soon the Darkness and even until his last feature, the surprisingly explicit Aphrodite, the man was an exceptionally crafty filmmaker. Over a two-year period (1971-2), Fuest released among the most original pair of horror pictures ever made, both starring the legendary Vincent Price as Anton Phibes: The Abominable Dr. Phibes (amazingly, Price's 100th movie appearance), and the less successful Dr. Phibes Rises Again. In the original, organist Anton uses the ten plagues of Egypt (as described in Exodus) to kill the nine doctors responsible for his wife's demise. With a supporting cast of Joseph Cotten, Terry-Thomas, the stunning Virginia North and an array of talented character actors, the first Phibes is a masterpiece. The sequel, continuing in the black-humor vein, still has the systematic death element (even if it isn't worked into the plot quite as cleverly), still has significant guest stars (Robert Quarry, Peter Cushing, Terry-Thomas again -- didn't we kill him off in the first one?) but lacks the spark of the original. Yet despite the fact that it feels rushed into production to capitalize on the success of the first film, the sequel is terrifically entertaining. When Price died in 1993, it temporarily killed my dream of making a third Phibes film. "Temporarily" because, as you'll note when you watch these films, Vincent's character can be replaced -- he has no face. Someday, someday...

Posted by at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reviewer: Craig Phillips
Rating (out of 5): ***½

Criterion's edition of Fiend Without a Face is a wonderful transfer of an oft-neglected little creeper. Whereas the previous DVD edition looked no better than what you would have seen on late night television twenty years ago, the new anamorphic edition was put through the usual Criterion care and feeding to look as sharp as it likely ever has. There is also some truly outstanding audio commentary with producer Richard Gordon and expert horror film writer Tom Weaver that isn't just about the film itself but also about producing films in the 1950s. It will make you want to watch the whole thing all over again.

The story: People in a small town seem to be losing their minds - literally! Could radiation, and telepathy, be involved? It isn't as silly as it sounds (okay, it's a little silly). Like the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this film came at the height of Cold War paranoia and could be interpreted in several ways - some of them silly. But cinematically it has its champions, too; many critics, and film buffs, claim that Fiend Without a Face was a direct influence on such low-budget horror classics as Night of the Living Dead and some of John Carpenter's films. Given the time the film was made, it's particularly surprising how relatively gory the film is in spots - this too, was surely an influence on Romero and others. Makes one wonder if there was a disclaimer provided with the film upon original release - "Warning! This film contains crawling brains being splattered!" But fear not (or perhaps, fear yes!) for this classic cult film, ignoring its clunky science, has surprisingly good effects and is full of scares - and, okay, a few unintentional chuckles, too. Either way, it's the perfect movie for a Halloween treat.

Posted by at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reviewer: Craig Phillips
Rating (out of 5): ***½

Keane stars Damian Lewis, most famous here previously for his portrayal of the earnest American captain in the WWII series Band of Brothers (he's actually British). Lewis gives an absolutely brilliant, wrenching performance as a man desperately searching for his missing daughter - or does she exist at all? Director Lodge Kerrigan, who also explored madness in his first feature, the memorable Clean, Shaven (just out on DVD from Criterion), and the filmmaker is in full command of his craft here, using a single camera for street-level, first person immediacy. And because of this, be forewarned: it's a challenge to at first stick with it through Keane's disturbed babblings while he wanders through New York. But as the film unfolds, and Keane befriends a similiarly down-and-out mother (played by The Wire's Amy Ryan) and daughter, it slyly works its way in surprisingly heartrending fashion, while never failing to keep things emotionally true. Cassavetes would be proud. Textbook stuff, in more ways than one.

Would make a good double-feature with the new doc Unknown White Male and especially, of course, Clean, Shaven.

Posted by at 12:19 PM | Permalink

• The Omega Man (1971).
• Dead Alive (Brain Dead) (1992).
• Shaun of the Dead (2004).
• 28 Days Later (2002).
• Re-Animator (1985).
• The Serpent and the Rainbow (1987).
• Zombie/Zombi 2 (1979).
• Land of the Dead.
• Bio Zombie (2001).
• Junk (1999).
• Return of the Living Dead (1985).

Posted by at 10:35 AM | Permalink

Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ***

When the president of a floundering Madison Avenue advertising agency keels over and dies on the conference table during a meeting, the board calls for a vote to designate a new president. Each of the men are so disappointed that the bylaws prohibit voting for themselves that they all abstain by voting for the only black man on the board. And this is how Putney Swope becomes the president of the advertising agency. He decides that since the company is already doomed he might as well go down in flames. "Rockin' the boat's a drag," he says, "Whatcha do is sink the boat!" He immediately fires all the white people, renames the agency "Truth and Soul, Inc.", and puts all the clients who make war toys and cigarettes on notice.

The satire Putney Swope is a bit less cutting than it undoubtedly was in the late sixties but the film's earnest weirdness rewards multiple viewings and perhaps demonstrates that LSD was not all bad. The television spots created by the new agency include: a psychedelic montage of topless girls jumping on a trampoline before deciding to have an orgy with a random passerby (to sell Lucky Airline travel, of course), a redneck beauty queen getting pied in the face with chicken pot pies, and a double amputee hocking life insurance by proclaiming "they charge an arm and a leg, but it's worth every penny!" And then there's director Robert Downey's decision to dub in all of Swope's dialogue with his own gravelley, white voice - a decision necessitated by the actor's inability to remember his lines and the low-budget shooting schedule - that now reads like a brilliant stylistic choice.

Continue reading "Putney Swope" »

Posted by at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (30)

Reviewer: James Van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ****½

I find it hard to believe that any movie buff out there has not yet seen Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, the late Russ Meyer's jaw-dropping non-sequel to the equally jaw-dropping (for different reasons) Valley of the Dolls, Mark Robson's "go" at the Jacqueline Susann novel. Erin Donovan's review captures the camp of the earlier film, but Meyer's movie (made three years later) is camp of a very different order. Although classy dames like Dorothy Kingsley and Helen Deutsch did the screenplay for the original Valley (hoping somehow to have their cake and eat it, too), the Beyond script comes from Roger Ebert (yes, him), and he wants to stuff the entire meal down our throat. This was his first attempt at a screenplay and, though by decade's close he'd written two more for Meyer, nothing - from him or anybody else, before or since - has ever come close to the entertaining lunacy of this wild film. Here is the world of 1970 in all its garish colors, costumes, hairstyles and expanding sexual habits plus "Gee, kids, let's put on a rock band," transgender, decapitation, lesbian allure, crossing the color barrier and finally - I kid you not - a denouement in which Ebert and Meyer try to take us all to church.

Continue reading "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" »

Posted by at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (51)

Reviewer: Tamara Lees
Rating (out of 5): ***½

Like Night Moves and Cutter's Way, Cisco Pike is a low-key Seventies character study once derided as a failure but now in crying need of a new audience. It also boasts a superb film debut from Kris Kristofferson (who'd been glimpsed in the previous year's The Last Movie, if you want to pick nits), at the time better known as a musician. Here he plays the titular character, also a musician and former idol who has hit the skids. He ends up dealing drugs to make money, and is blackmailed by a crooked cop (played by Gene Hackman - in perfect form, both natural and poignant) to unload pounds of weed in less than three days or he's screwed. Harry Dean Stanton plays a long lost pal and bandmate of Pike's who is now, unfortunately, a total junkie; Stanton is mesmerizingly good here, although he wouldn't be fully appreciated until years later.

Kristofferson also contributes several terrific songs to the soundtrack, while director Bill Norton (also making his debut) does a nice job creating an appropriately boozy atmosphere. Like those other films mentioned above, Cisco Pike captures the aimlessness and disillusionment after the promise the spirt of the 60s once held for many. But while some aspects of the film may appear ready for a time capsule, it still holds up surprisingly well - and cynicism never goes out of style.

Posted by at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (472)

Reviewer: Craig Phillips
Rating (out of 5): ***

Michele Soavi's demented Cemetery Man (the original, superior title is Dellamorte Dellamore, a play on the protagonist's name and a more appropriate summary of the film), one of the more underrated and artfully directed zombie films, has finally made its way to a stateside DVD release. The film is Italian horror but stars Brit Rupert Everett as a beleaguered cemetery keeper who has to deal with the dead's annoying habit of coming to life seven days after burial. All sorts of complications ensue, including the fact that his Igor-esque, sweet and slow-minded assistant falls in love with one of the dead; she, in turn, loses her head over him, too. A beautiful romantic interest for Everett, meanwhile, is provided by Anna Falchi (with at least one very erotic sex scene that ends, alas, in zombieus interruptus).

It's often gory and gross (dig that bus accident), and just as frequently funny, an odd hybrid of genres and tones, one part Night of the Living Dead and another part Delicatessen. While the sound, which probably was never great to begin with, is a bit tinny and muddied, it's certainly passable, and the print looks better than I remember seeing previously. For horror fans looking for a change of pace, Cemetery Man may be just the ticket. And remember: "You get into all sorts of trouble if you kill people if they're still alive." -- Craig Phillips

Posted by at 7:57 PM | Permalink