THE AGGRESSION SCALE: Badassery comes in small packages.

THE AGGRESSION SCALE is what excellent low budget film making is all about.  It has a simple story propelled by interesting characters acted by terrific actors.  The film is stylishly filmed without being obvious.  There isn't a bunch of shaky cam crap that directors like to do to try and make something intense or chaotic.  I think directors do that crap because there is a director wanting more attention than what is going on in the film they are making.  (*cough* HUNGER GAMES *cough* cough* puke*)  Art is all about them and not the art.  Its a smart movie.  It is also an extremely ironic movie. 

Ray Wise is a mobster out of prison for a couple of days.  He wants his money and he wants those who stole it to die very badly.  He gives Dana Ashbrook a list of people to kill.  The man at the end of that list has a son named Owen.  After his father and step-mother are murdered Owen takes his step-sister into the woods where he springs traps on the murders dispatching them one by one.  Owen is a thirteen or fourteen year old boy.  He has problems of the mental variety.  The creators of AGGRESSION SCALE describe it as HOME ALONE meets RAMBO and they are right.  You have a young boy springing traps on criminals but all bloody and murdery like.  No cartoon like consequences for these bad guys.  Owen's traps are meant to hurt and kill.  Like FIRST BLOOD there is a scene where we get to learn how badass Owen is.  The bad guys find a box where Owen's medical history is kept.  There they find reports on how aggressive he is along with photos of bullies who are forever maimed after their altercation with him.  The whole thing creeps them out to the point where Derek Mears' character worries openly when he is told to go into the woods and get the boy.  Think about it.  Derek Mears played Jason 'freakin' Vorhees in the FRIDAY THE 13TH remake.  JASON VORHEES IS SCARED OF THIS KID!

Owen doesn't speak.  He seems to have little attachment to his family.  When they talk he barely hears them over the  high pitched ringing in his ears.  They don't fit into his violent world.  He goes along with them but he doesn't pay them much attention.  Only when his step-sister violently stabs one of the bad guys in the back does he feel any kind of connection with her.  He is a boy constantly thinking of violence.  Where ever he goes he is constantly looking around formulating imaginary traps in his mind.  You wouldn't be surprised if one day he snaps and kills his whole family.  They are just there and that's it.  A character like him is usually the villain but not in AGGRESSION SCALE.  He is the hero.

After about ten minutes of watching THE AGGRESSION SCALE you realize you are watching something special.  Why wasn't this film released in theaters?  It would have done well.  The characters have real personalities.  The bad guys are all badass yet have moments where they are awkward around their boss or do something stupid and they know it.  They come off as working class folks who happen to be murderous thugs.  Everything feels down to earth and realistic.  I think all the blood is practical effects making the violence a lot more convincing and shocking.  The movie is never slow even during the character development moments which occupy the large portion of the beginning of the film.  Its all interesting thanks to the great acting of all who is involved.  The characters are all genuine.  You care about the family and you feel horrible when the parents are murdered.  Placement of the camera and where it moves to is given great thought.  It is subtly creative.  Its a wonderful film to look at.  This is a far cry from director Steven C. Miller's first film AUTOMATION TRANSFUSION.  The guy learns from his mistakes.  Good job.  I can't wait to see what he works on next.

Ray Wise is a great mobster who orders his men to go out and kill everyone who took his money.  "Make it loud and messy" he tells them.  His eyes have a fiery violence to themselves.  He has a kid too that may have a similar mental condition as Owen but they don't get into that at all.  The kid just seems to behave the same as Owen did at the beginning of the film.  Dana Ashbrook is a powerhouse of badass as goes out and kills all those involved with the stolen loot.  I barely recognized him.  Last time I saw him was with Ray Wise in TWIN PEAKS.  He looks a lot older and a lot more badass.  Derek Mears really impressed me.  He can be huge and scary yet vulnerable and a little goofy.  He has the best 'getting shot and falling down' death I have ever seen.  He really looks like he just died in front of the camera.  Never seen someone fall that way before.  Very convincing.  I would like to see more of him in stuff too.

THE AGGRESSION SCALE is a darn satisfying film.  It is a wonderful surprise that everyone should watch.  Owen is a great character.  He even kills a spider with a self made blow dart.  That will get you a ton load of 'brownie' points in my book of cool.  I really have nothing negative to say about it.  Its a fast moving film that never bores but gets better and better as the story runs along.  I highly recommend.  Tell your friends and be the coolest.

Jason

PROMETHEUS, are you reading this cuz I'm not sure I am.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

DJANGO STRIKES AGAIN

Is this suppose to be MAD MAX?

DJANGO STRIKES AGAIN is the only true sequel to the original DJANGO.  I put that in there because I think it is required by law or something to state that fact since just about every review I have read puts that disclaimer in their review.  Director Nello Rossati does a fantastic job of reclaiming the classic Italian Western style going so far as to set the film in the west (technically Mexico) but film in Columbia and to give director credit to his alias Ted Archer.  A whole heckola of Spaghetti Westerns gave European actors and directors English names to trick American audiences into believing they were watching an American western.  There are still a lot of people out there that don't even know that  A FISTFULL OF DOLLARS, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE,  and THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY are Italian westerns.  FOOLS!  Even though its not a better film than the original I think DJANGO STRIKES BACK is better than what it is given credit for.  You can't go wrong with a dude running around with a Gatling gun shooting bad guys in the face, is all I am saying.

Franco Nero returns as the title character for the first time in a long time.  Django has buried his past and has become a monk.  When he discovers that his daughter has been kidnapped by some bad dude on a boat Django digs up his trade mark Gatling gun and sets out on a crusade to save his daughter.  He replaces the coffin for a hearse.  I thought that was kind of neat.  The body count is high and the characters are interesting so you shouldn't have too much trouble enjoying this one.  The main villain is Orlowsky a military officer who captures tribes people in Mexico and uses them as slaves in his silver mine.  He is a similar character to Col. Jackson in the first DJANGO.  They are both racists who kill for fun with no morals whatsoever.  Orlowsky is so bad that the people call him 'El Diablo'.  In English that means 'The Devil'.  I bet you didn't know that.  I didn't.  Anyhoo he loves the name.  In fact a peasant woman is captured that he falls in love with and he actually seduces her to the dark side.  That was pretty creative if you ask me.  Usually the female lead character would resist the villain's charms and eventually hook up with the hero.  Not in DJANGO STRIKES BACK.  That girl gets herself murdered by a jealous slave chick with a whip.  I didn't see that coming. 

I hate to speak metaphorically about films but it is kind of hard to ignore what I think the main theme (or whatever you want to call it) of the movie is.  DJANGO STRIKES BACK seems to be about good triumphing over evil.  I know that is what most movies are about but this one seems to have some strong religious overtones to it.  Django represents God being that he fights for good saving the innocent and comes from a monastery.  He kind of looks like Jesus.  Orlowsky is obviously the devil seducing the innocent or keeping them as slaves and murdering them in some horrible fashion.  At the end when Django is rescuing everyone and all the bad guys are dead he has a duel with El Diablo Orlowsky.  Orlowsky tries to escape but finds himself at the edge of a pit with hundreds of newly freed slaves at the bottom just waiting to get their hands on him.  Django shows up shooting Orlowsky's sword in half.  Then he simply walks toward El Diablo forcing him to walk backwards falling into the pit where he is engulfed by hundreds of arms like flames.  The whole dang thing looks like something out of Revelations where the devil is thrown into the lake of fire.  I don't know.  I am probably just trying to be smart when really I am not.  I don't think the makers where thinking that but the scene reminded me of all that biblical stuff.  Maybe if they called Orlowsky 'Cookie" I would think the whole movie was some kind of violent homage to THE BOZO SHOW.

DJANGO STRIKES BACK is a great action filled western.  They really exploit the whole gunning bad guys with a machine gun aspect of the Django character.  Apparently he is so accurate with it that he can shoot a bunch of baddies with it and miss the wall of innocent people that are running around two feet behind them.  Hilarious.  I think they try to create some similar gothic moments from the original Django using fog and crosses and the same wind sound effects.  Doesn't quite work but it is a nice try.  It is the thought that counts.  DJANGO was the western set in the mud.  DJANGO STRIKES BACK is the western set on the water.  I like that idea.  Too bad there was never a RETURN OF THE DJANGO.

Some thoughts on Quentin Tarantino's DJANGO UNCHAINED.  If you are going to call your movie DJANGO you better have a large body count and a dude lugging a Gatling Gun around and shooting people in the face with it.  I don't think we are going to get that from UNCHAINED.  I know it will be a great film but I am expecting something similar to INGLORIOUS BASTARDS where all the action is taken out and replaced with well written scenes of people talking around tables.  (Oscar gold!!!)  Good but not what we really want.  Do we really need a prequel to JACKIE BROWN?  It would be nice to see Quentin direct an extremely violent action film.  At least he always gives us something that is different.  I know the title DJANGO UNCHAINED is based more on the concept of countless westerns that stole the name 'Django' in an attempt to fool audiences into thinking they were actually watching a DJANGO sequel.  At least Franco Nero will make an appearance.  That will give UNCHAINED some street credit for us nerdos who love Italian Westerns.  Yes, we do exist.

Jason

Whoa!  Calm down, Rambo!

Django is the villain in DJANGO!

DJANGO is the ultimate example of the word 'extreme' in the Italian western genre.  It is violent and shocking with it's use of gore   The body count is the highest in the genre too as far as I know.  Bad guys are blasted left and right flailing their arms in the air or clutching their bullet riddled stomachs as they spin dead face first into the muddy streets of the soon to be ghost town.  DJANGO is the reason why we watch Spaghetti Westerns. From what I understand both Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Leone both saw YOJIMBO and decided to make a western based off that movie.  While director Sergio Leone completely ripped off Akira Kurosawa's YOJIMBO with a nearly shot for shot remake titled A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, the other Sergio made a violent messy film that was merely inspired by the samurai classic.  Both Italian films have rival gangs pitted against each other by a mysterious gunman.  Both are stylish and violent with unique visuals like  Eastwood in the serape and Django pulling behind him a muddy coffin.  But what makes DJANGO a more interesting film is the character of Django himself.  Eastwood's character is clearly the hero who kills for money but has a heart of gold.  We have seen that character a billion times before.  Django on the other hand is the main villain of the story who cares for nothing but money.  He is one S.O.B. who happens to be a B.A.M.F.


So the movie starts out with some poor woman named Maria trying to cross a bridge but instead is tied up and bull whipped by a group of Mexican bandits.  Django dressed in a Union soldier uniform is watching from a nearby hill.  Then BANG! all four bandits drop dead.  Before you can say "Hey, I only heard one shot!" another group of villains emerge from another hill.  They shot the bandits at the same time.  Not to be outdone by their rivals in the mean department the new bad guys saved the woman just so they can tie her up to a cross and burn her alive.  These guys are part of a gang that is like the K.K.K. led by the dastardly Col. Jackson who apparently really hates Mexicans.  Django appears before them.  They all have a blah-blah-blah back and forth then suddenly Django blasts them all saving the woman from certain doomy-doom-doom.  If you were paying attention you would have seen your first clue as to the moral character of Django.  Django draws first.  Normally the hero waits for the bad guy to go for his gun first with the hero being so fast that he can draw, fire and kill in an instant.  Django is quick but he isn't interested in being good.  Don't let the fact that he just saved an innocent woman from death fool you.

After mowing down a hundred red hooded clans men in the muddy streets of the a run down town with a Gatling gun, Django strangely lets Col. Jackson escape.  We learn that Jackson killed Django's wife.  So when given the opportunity to kill Jackson twice Django abstains.  Why?  Hugo and his merry men of marauders shows up and reclaims the broken down town.  Hugo is a self appointed general who is planning a revolution in Mexico.  He and Django are good friends.  In times past Django saved his life in prison.  It is kind of a weird back story for Django.  He must have been gone from his wife for a very long time to be in prison and fight in the Civil War.  Jackson doesn't seem to even know who Django is.  They don't really have a back story together.  Jackson just killed Django's wife and that is it.  I guess that is a good thing because the movie doesn't get bogged down in boring flashbacks or long winded tales of who did what to who back in the day.  DJANGO just speeds along to the next violent set piece. 

Django reveals to Hugo that Jackson has a bunch of gold in a fort and with his mens' help they can all be rich.  I can only assume that is why Django did not kill Jackson.  He wanted to make sure Jackson put his gold in the fort.  Hugo is impressed with his old pal Django.  Not only did he wipe out Col. Jackson's gang he also returned Maria back to the flock.  That is right.  Django saved Maria to ensure that his standing with Hugo was solid.  This film should have been titled DJANGO THE BASTARD!  So Hugo, eager to fund his revolution, raids Jackson's fort and steals his gold.  That night Django betrays his old friend and steals all the gold for himself.

Every move he has made to this point in the film was simply to steal all the gold for himself.  Revenge was never in the equation.  That is pretty unique for a simple western.  This is why Django is the villain.  DJANGO is similar to a caper film.  Hugo maybe bad but he didn't betray Django.

Unfortunately for Django life is a bitch and he loses all the gold in quick sand and his former ally Hugo has his men run over his hands with horses.  With his hands pretty much destroyed the 'evil' Django is perished and replaced by the good Django who realizes that his destiny is to kill Jackson for the murder of his wife which he does in splendid unrealistic fashion.

DJANGO is a near perfect Euro-Western.  There is one really slow part where Django is sneaking out of his hotel room on his way to steal the newly acquired gold but other than that DJANGO moves quickly.  A ton of people die in this one and it gets a little gruesome from time to time.  At one point this guy gets his ear cut off and fed to him.  That is pretty graphic for a mainstream film.  This scene inspired the ear cutting off scene in RESERVOIR DOGS.  Many movies were called DJANGO after this but none lived up to the hype the name invokes including the official sequel DJANGO STRIKES AGAIN.  Hopefully DJANGO UNCHAINED does.  Probably won't though.  Most likely we will get another movie about people sitting at tables talking about stuff in a clever manner.  Stop going for the Oscar, QT!

I wonder if DJANGO inspired elements of TOMBSTONE.  Both have a second in command villain named Ringo and both have a gang that is identified by their red sashes.  Makes me think.  Watch DJANGO and THE GREAT SILENCE back to back.  Best double feature ever.

Jason

THE RAID: REDEMPTION will kick the crap out of you!

THE RAID: REDEMPTION just doesn't stop.  It kicks butt in so many ways.  Fight after fight the film never fails to impress.  There are tons of wonderful moments of tension like a horror movie but mixed with a lot of punching and getting shot in the face.  It has a very simple premise.  A bunch of police guys storm an apartment complex looking for a big time crime lord who runs the whole joint.  Unfortunately the whole raid is one big trap and most of the cops are gunned down leaving just a few to survive through the body covered hallways and rooms.

I think a lot of direct-to-video action movies need to take a hard look at THE RAID.  How much did THE RAID accomplish visually with it's budget?  Was it really that much more expensive to make this movie than the latest Segal embarrassment?  Keep things simple and develop the characters by the actions they take not how many boring flashbacks and boring fill-in-the-background-of-the-characters talk.  You get all you need to know by some simple visuals at the beginning with a hint of mystery.  As the film moves forward secrets are revealed and characters change or not change by the bloody events they take part in.  THE RAID does just about everything right.  This movie even has shaky-cam and it does that right.  You can tell what is going on and not be distracted by the camera veering off to shake at something off screen.  Best of all this movie has no car chases.

I really don't have much to say about this one (because I am a terrible writer and have no buisness expressing my opinion on a blog *cough*cough*) except go see it whenever possible.  THE RAID is one of those movies that has a lot of cool and extremely painful moments to watch.  There is so much kung-fu and flippidy-do-da's going on that you might experience sensory overload resulting in the delusion that you start feeling every punch, kick, and face smash happening in the movie.  It's that good.  There is a really long but cool as heck fight scene at the end between two good guys and a badass henchman who is apparently extremely allergic to florescent light bulbs being broken and shoved into his throat.  You will be amazed at the athleticism of these actors.  They very physical actors that are good at fighting, acting and not getting killed on set.  Hey, this movie even has a token white dude in it as well!  You just know he is going to be the bad guy.  The only negative gripe I have is the title.  Do we really need the word "REDEMPTION" tagged at the end?  Is that how we are going to "Americanize" it?  Can we expect the titles to the sequels to be THE RAID: RISES, THE RAID: RESURRECTION, or THE RAID: RETURN OF THE?  Its just silly if you ask me.  But you didn't so I will just shut up now.


Bastards.....


Jason

VAMP! Grace Jones is the scariest vampire ever.

People often ask me why I don't go to strip clubs.  I always answer the same.  I grab them by the collar and pull them real close and give them my own Clint Eastwood gleaming stare and matter of factly say "Vampires".  If Hollywood has taught us one thing its that most strip clubs are ran by vampires that want to suck blood and tear peoples' faces off.  It is just a simple fact.  I have seen it happen time and time again.  FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, THE DEVIL'S DEN, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2, DEADCERT, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 3 and VAMP are all classic examples of vampires dabbling in the skin trade to suck peoples' blood.  No, thanks.  I like to keep my blood on the inside of my body.  That is where I keep most of my organs.

Anyhoo Keith and A.J. are a couple of college students who are trying to get into a fraternity.  After making the fraternity they were pledging to look bad they promise to get the fraternity anything they want.  That anything turns out to be a stripper.  So they decide to drive hundreds of miles away to a big city where they find a club called AFTER DARK.  I think its called AFTER DARK.  I could be wrong.  I don't quite remember.  You get the point though.  The club's name is some kind of vampire joke. Hilarious I'm sure if I was undead.  There they find Grace Jones performing.........Yea, its kind of weird.  I will leave it at that.  This is the eighties though and our two heroes for some odd reason find Grace to be the hottest woman alive.  A.J. goes back to see if she will be their stripper where he is immediately sucked dry.  I could have warned him but I was like ten back then.  My G.I. Joes weren't going to play by themselves.  (Though that would be awesome.)  The rest of the movie is Keith and this girl who knows him from back in the day running around being chased by vampires,  I guess they decided not to follow up on the whole getting a stripper for the college party.  That is a shame.  I say why can't they do both?

Remember that kid from MEATBALLS that looked like he could be a boy or a girl but we couldn't tell because we were like ten when that movie came out?  Well he is Keith and he was actually a boy.  Now he looks like the son of Mel Gibson.  The actors name is Chris Makepeace and he does a good job playing the film's lead.  He is not too dorky but he is not too handsome either.  I can relate to him.  Actually now that I think about it, Mel Gibson is a pretty good looking fellow.  I can't relate to that.  Now I don't like him.  His friend A.J. is played by that guy from NIGHTMARE OF ELM ST.  part 2 FREDDY DOESN'T LIKE GAY PEOPLE who gets killed in his tighty-whiteys.  He is a good personality.  Hip and charming he steals the show tricking you into thinking he is the main lead.  But then he dies.  Now usually when this happens the movie would become less interesting but it doesn't.  MEATBALLS BOY takes the reins and guides us through the green and pink lighted back alleys and sewers of vampire central.  Don't worry folks, ol' A.J. comes back as a vampire.  The good kind I assure you.  Well, not at first but A.J. is too cool to dine on the blood of his best friend.  What a great guy.  We could all take a lesson in friendship from A.J.  Not me though.  If I was a vampire your ass is grass.

VAMP is surprisingly good.  It has a lot of interesting scenes and characters and the film doesn't slow or get boring.  Plus a lot of vampires die too.  That is very important in a vampire film.  Kill more vampires.  Two best characters are of course the non talking Grace Jones that freaks out into vampire form and an albino gang leader played by the awesome Billy Drago.  If anything see it for them. 


Jason

CABIN IN THE WOODS is the JURASSIC PARK of horror movies!

Finally we get a horror movie with some imagination.  CABIN IN THE WOODS is one of those movies that you want to know as little as possible about.  Don't watch the trailers.  Don't read the synopsis.  Stay away from reviews.  Just go and see it.  Stop reading this right now and go see it.  I am going to spoil everything so just go away.  This movie kicked my butt.  If you love horror movies then you should love this one.  There is lots to see.  In fact I think CABIN IN THE WOODS is the ultimate horror movie.  Let me just say that it is not about five friends going to a cabin in the woods.

CABIN IN THE WOODS is about five friends who go to a cabin in the woods.  Before that however we are introduced to two company men (One played by the bad guy from BILLY MADISON.  Hurray!) working at some unknown company talking about their lives and such.  They are a couple of likable funny individuals who apparently are monitoring our five friends as they go to the cabin in the woods.  We discover that these two are manipulating the youngsters into summoning something bad to kill them from an elaborate facility underneath the cabin.  The question is why.

This movie has everything.  It is way bigger than what you think.  The facility holds thousands of different kinds of horrors in holding cells waiting for the college kids to choose (accidentally of course) which monster will arise and kill them.  The kids think they are on a weekend getaway but really they are being led to the basement where several strange objects are kept.  Kids are suppose to explore the cellar eventually activating one of the objects to summon whatever monster the object is tied too.  The employees actually take bets on what monster will be summoned.  Funny stuff.  At the end the two college survivors sneak down into the facility where they release all the horrors onto the staff and armed guards.  What we are treated to is a whole SyFy Channel Original Movie Monster Reunion of epic gruesome proportions.  We have a giant snake, a giant spider, a giant bat, a kick ass looking werewolf, a Pinhead knock off,  a scary clown (Who I named Stabby McStab Stab), psycho killers from THE STRANGERS,  a killer teeth face ballerina and a Merman which apparently is the Aqua Man of the horror community.

If you are a kid or just looking for inspiration for a horror idea this movie is perfect for you.  It is extremely smart and clever with interesting characters including all five college friends.  Horror cliches are present but implemented in a very clever funny way.  The movie gets crazier and crazier leading up to one full blown holy heckola of an ending.  It really is more of a funny movie than it is scary.  In fact the movie reminds me of season 4 of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER where the government has a research facility underneath Sunnydale where scientist experiment with monsters and demons and such.  I guess that makes sense since Joss Wheadon helped produce this sucker.

CABIN IN THE WOODS brings originality back to the horror genre. It is a big movie that starts off small  The goods are delivered and then some.  Boringness is nowhere to be found and for the most part the story is unpredictable.  Mostly.  It will be extremely hard to beat this movie for "BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR" at the awards show in my mind.  Good luck, all the other movies coming out this year.  You are going to need it.


Jason