onsdag 31. august 2011

Memories of movies #2 - Under Siege 2: Dark Territory




Back in the days there were very few shops that sold VHS’ where I lived. One man had monopoly with three stores and kept the prices unreasonably high for years. Still, the curious movie adventurer I was I frequently visited them, mostly the one named Cudrio. Apart from the prices and the greedy owner I remember they had some alluring and frightening films. The cover I picked up the most was Society. Looking at the back of that cover always promised me a world of demented terror impossible to fathom, at that point in time at least. It took about a decade before that film would find its way to my horror shelf. Society is demented fun, with excellent practical effects from the highly uneven director Brian Yuzna. The ending has a rare “what-the-fuck” quality to it. Those who have seen it know what I’m talking about.

But that’s not really the film in question. I took my bicycle down to buy a couple of movies one day. The movies chosen were Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, rated 18, and cop/dog buddy action comedy Top Dog starring Chuck Norris, rated 15. I had just turned 12 at that time. My longing for action was temporarily crushed at the counter. Clearly this kid wasn’t of the right age. However, they gave me the opportunity to call my father at work to verify that this was indeed okay. Apparently they had had a couple of cases with angry moms not appreciating what their kids had purchased. I hadn’t really asked him before about that, but was he really going to say no? Of course he didn’t and with Under Siege 2 and Top Dog in my backpack I headed home. It has been years since Top Dog crossed my retinas, but from memory it was decent, if rather routine, cop and canine with attitudes fare. Under Siege 2 on the other hand was a different beast. The cover made it look really cool to a 12 year old.

The Norwegian cover for Under Siege 2. The literal translation from Norwegian reads; "Hijacking in High Velocity". I was always fascinated by the "Action Collection" covers. Somehow it made the whole thing seem cooler.

At that point I hadn’t seen the first Under Siege flick, but that didn’t matter. We had an action film rated 18 and that was plenty. The first one was purchased on a Danish VHS about three months later.

Anyway, the first time I saw Under Siege 2 I was blown away. It was a fast-paced, slick and brutal action film. Steven Seagal as chef and top trained elite soldier Casey Ryback was the epitome of cool. That isn’t the case(y) today. Another exciting element was the setting, a moving train. I’ve always had a fascination with movies set on a train and it started, strangely enough, here. It’s a small setting, but with lots of possibilities! Everett McGill as the leading mercenary, Marcus Penn, was a mighty villain too. You know someone is badass if they use pepper spray to freshen their mouth! He also delivers a line that has ever since lingered in the back of my mind; “Assumptions is the mother of all fuck-ups!” I really think he was on to something! Assumptions have time and again led to mistakes, so he deserves credit for alerting me about this fact at such an early age. Years later I discovered the very same quote was actually used the previous year in the Australian drag queen comedy Priscilla: The Queen of the Desert. It doesn’t really change anything though. There are plenty of other great quotes as well. After the mercenaries, dressed as railroad men, stop the train the conductor walks off the train and asks what‘s going on. “Someone’s been shot. Who? You!” BANG! That’s some quality writing right there!

Under Siege 2 also marks Steven Seagal’s last great film (there were some duds before this one too though). No, I’m not counting his minor role in Executive Decision the following year, in case you were wondering. This was the last of his streak of brutal early 90s films. They were very unapologetically violent. The ruthlessness displayed in these films (and plenty other from the first half of the 90s) still makes me raise an eyebrow today. The primary example is a scene in Out for Justice (1991) where a stone cold William Forsythe drags a woman halfway through her car window and executes her at point blank range for honking the car horn at him. There is one quote acknowledging this; “He’s killing people like it was free!” It’s not pretty there or in Under Siege 2, but you’ll feel infinitely rewarded as Seagal moves his eyebrows just a tad when killing them.

In later years I have discovered why this was better than it really had any right to be. First off, director Geoff Murphy is the man responsible for one of my favorite 80s sci-fi films, The Quiet Earth. He has also been second-unit director on all three Lord of the Rings films. Second, it was co-written by Matt Reeves today better known as the director of Cloverfield and Let Me In.

Many movies have a tendency to become disappointments as you grow older (don’t watch the original Narina series again!), but with Under Siege 2 that is not the case. It simply never ceases to entertain me. I think this sequel is on par with the first one even though that one had Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey and a topless Erika Eleniak coming out of a cake, a frequently replayed scene, going for it. Seagal’s career isn’t the greatest anymore, to say the least, but back then he actually made some stuff well worth watching. Under Siege 2: Dark Territory was my introduction to his filmography and is part of the reason I still have a soft spot for the man with the iron face. Well done Mr. Seagal. Well done.

8/10 in case you were wondering.

søndag 28. august 2011

8MM (1999)


Hollywood takes on a dark subject matter…

Private investigator Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage) is hired to find out if a snuff film is authentic or not. This is the start of a long dark road.

A snuff film is defined as; “A motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation.” The term “snuff film” was first used by Ed Sanders, who wrote that the Manson family was involved with making such a film to record their murders. Fictionalized snuff or pseudo-snuff began gaining notoriety with the 1976 flick Snuff. Since then this sub-genre has grown slow and steadily in volume with the Guinea Pig films and Cannibal Holocaust being the most infamous ones. More recently A Serbian Film (2010) has dealt with the subject matter Both Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood and Cannibal Holocaust have had to prove that they were indeed pseudo-snuff and not the real deal. There are several examples of real people committing torture and murder while filming the act. German cannibal Armin Meiwes filmed the killing of his willing victim, but since this was never done with an intention of distributing for money such videos aren’t generally considered snuff films.

8MM is a bold movie in the light of being a big-budgeted Hollywood flick dealing with humanity at its most depraved. The script was apparently a lot darker, but writer Andrew Kevin Walker and director Joel Schumacher disagreed and Walker has subsequently disowned the film. I can’t help but wonder what the uglier version would have looked like.

Do you like what you see?
*Spoilers*

Cage works well as the private investigator. His descent into the abyss is easily one of the movies’ highlights. While initially looking at the case with a certain detached attitude it gradually gets under his skin. My favorite scene is when Welles decides he wants to give the men responsible a dose of vigilante justice and takes on Eddie Poole (James Gandolfini). Gandolfini makes little out of his role for the most part, but excels in their little showdown not showing an inch of remorse while uttering; 


“Go ahead. Pull the fucking trigger. Well go ahead. What're you waiting for? Go ahead, do it! You faggot! What do you want me to do, start crying like a little baby? "Oh, I'm so sorry I killed the little girl." Well, fuck you, and fuck her! Go ahead! Put me outta my fucking misery! Pull the fucking trigger! Pull the fucking trigger! Do it! Do it!” Cage communicates a whole range of emotions while Poole rambles on. He wants him to suffer, but is afraid to go to that dark place. As Nietzsche has put it; “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.” To push him over he calls the victims’ mother and asks for a boost; “I want to hurt them. I want to punish them for what they did. Please give me your permission to punish them!” This could easily have come off as dumb or corny, but the scene is plays out as an emotional rollercoaster. Give in to temptation. What do you do when you encounter humans devoid of empathy? Do you want him to punish them? Another stand-out in the movie is Joaquin Phoenix as the porn shop clerk Max California that Welles hires to guide him in the underground video market. Otherwise Peter Stormare is a perfect fit as the extreme film director Dino Velvet. According to Max he’s “the Jim Jarmusch of S & M”, which is a small but welcome joke in this otherwise doom laden universe.


One thing I wondered about when Welles and California are scouring the underground market looking for snuff is how is the extreme film market today? Specifically is there still and to what extent a market for extreme movies dealing in physical copies? Internet has made everything more available so has it affected this market? We can watch videos of people being tortured and executed on the internet at any time. All the death and suffering is there for those seeking it, but is it enough? The answer always seems to be no.


One of the driving questions for Welles is the why. Why would anyone want to have someone make something like this? One answers his question with the chilling words; “Because he could.” That is a part of what makes 8MM so interesting. You wonder what the motivation is just like Welles. Tom’s surprised face as he finally unmasks Machine and realizes it is actually a human being behind it is a small revelation. In the end we can never get a satisfactory answer yet we strive for an understanding. It is all the more chilling when Machine doesn’t give a good reason either. In fact he makes a point that his life hasn’t been a troublesome one. There is no history of sexual abuse or other elements to shed light on it. Life isn’t black and white. Life isn’t a Disney film.


*End spoilers*


8MM works well on several levels. It works as a thriller, but more interestingly to me, it's a movie about movies and not just any kind. It puts a seedy light on the more abysmal genres of movies little or completely unknown to most people. While doing so it confronts you with your own views on violence without feeling condescending. It's an element through the movie lingering in the back of your head. I have followed that line of thoughts many times before. Why do I watch movies that feature such cruel and heinous acts? Why do you? Why not?


Joel Schumacher has crafted a solid thriller with 8MM. It gives viewers unfamiliar with snuff film and extreme cinema a safe and sanitized look into the darker side of movies, while posing intelligent questions. Dark mainstream entertainment can indeed be good.


8/10

fredag 5. august 2011

Machine-Gun Kelly (1958)

 

Bronson the gangster…

Charles Bronson stars in his first leading role as the notorious gangster George R. “Machine-Gun” Kelly. He, along with female companion Florence ‘Flo’ Becker (Susan Cabot) and a gang of criminals are making life sour for bank owners. After a robbery goes wrong Kelly takes out the rest of the gang conspiring to kill him for fouling up. His next move with Flo is to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy businessman for ransom.

Bronson is surprisingly charismatic and loose in this film. His stoic nature more apparent in later films takes a backseat here and he shows remarkable capability. It’s also fun watching him in a rare role as a villain that even manages to generate sympathy, at times anyway. I’ve never seen Bronson laugh as heartily before either. There is a duality to his character. On one hand he’s like a small child terribly afraid of death. Being a bank robber isn’t the wisest of career choices then, but life isn’t predictable. On the other hand he can be a cold and calculating killing-machine. Much of this is due to Flo’s ability to manipulate him. Behind every strong man there is an even stronger woman. Her role becomes progressively more interesting as the film develops. I love watching her going from slyly sexy to a cold and calculating bitch. While there is a serious tone underlying humor frequently sneaks in punctuating that it’s just a film. Most of the laughs are provided by comedian Morey Amsterdam, which clearly isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. He is also involved in one of the most unexpected highlights in the movie.

A classier sort of gangster.

Director and b-movie maestro Roger Corman shot the entire film in merely eight days. I expected it to look a lot rougher, but everything is filmed with an on-the-run sensibility. Machine-Gun Kelly probably gained from this. Both the characters in the movie and the people making it are in a hurry, but still take time to evaluate what has to be done. With such a rigid shooting schedule and budget there is little room to elaborate on anything. A bank robbery is filmed from the outside leaving a shadowy figure holding his hands up and a bullet through the door as illustrations of what’s going on. It’s a necessary minimalistic approach, but it works. I still wish we could have seen more scenes cementing Machine-Gun Kelly’s name though. Fortunately Bronson was just warming up and has since addressed this issue with a hailstorm of bullets.

Machine-Gun Kelly isn’t a miracle of movie making, but in its rather simple script there are some interesting themes both explored and left for the imagination. If you like either Charles Bronson, b-movies with gangsters, Roger Corman or a combination of them then Machine-Gun Kelly is worthwhile.

6/10 

torsdag 4. august 2011

Death Wish 3 (1985)


His name is Paul Kersey…

Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) returns to New York to visit his old friend Charley. His old town has again become a cesspool of sin. Detective Richard Shriker (Ed Lauter), tired of all the crime, forces Kersey to pick up old habits. He does just that, once again making the few people he cares about possible targets for the scum of the streets. Mayhem ensues.

The first Death Wish established the formula for the series; a man frustrated by the inactions of the law becomes a self-appointed avenger. Death Wish II elaborates in a more exploitative manner and remains the most nihilistic one. The only question here is how will Bronson dispense with the criminals this time around? Death Wish 3 is a more easygoing entry in the Kersey saga. It’s still brutal and packs the highest body count with 48, but shows some restraint for instance in a rape scene, that unlike the previous one is mercifully short here. This is Michael Winner’s third and final Death Wish film before leaving the reigns to veteran director J. Lee Thompson. Winner succeeds again in painting an urban dystopia of America gone wrong. The apartment complex where Charley resided shows good and honest people living in fear of the chaos in the streets. History is as usual repeating itself. But out of these worn-down streets rises a phoenix in the form of Paul Kersey. He is the vigilante angel of death. He is the savior of all that’s good, or at least it appears that way. There are some disturbing lines along the way, like when he says: “It’s like killing roaches – you have to kill ‘em all, otherwise what’s the use?” Kersey needs tools for this job and sends for his old friend Wildey .475 Magnum, a gun that surely would have given Harry Callahan potency problems. Apparently the sale of this gun increases every time Death Wish 3 is shown on cable in the States.

The villains in the movie, led by the menacing Fraker, all feel like caricatures. They are so over-the-top it’s virtually impossible to see them as human beings. That also makes it a lot easier to enjoy watching them die. And that is the big payoff. Bronson has some terrific scenes with the scum. As two crooks are messing up his car he calmly walks outside and asks them what they are doing. Unwilling to comply he kills them both before walking calmly back inside. He just sent Fraker a message. A bullet is all they understand. Things escalate and eventually Kersey declares New York a free-firing-zone, running around with a Browning 30. caliber machine-gun and an assistant feeding him ammunition. This again inspires the good and honest people to pick up their guns. The uprising has begun! Death Wish 3 really takes off towards the end. It’s a non-stop killathon dispensing everyone in the way. Detective Shriker even joins in and he and Bronson jogs up the street together only occasionally taking time to stop when killing. Eventually he finds the opportunity to use a rocket launcher as well. It’s all done in gloriously excessive 80s style. Thanks Ronald Reagan!

Bronson declares war on crime

Interestingly Death Wish 3 was released the year after Bernard Goetz shot a severely wounded four muggers on the New York subway. He was subsequently named “The Subway Vigilante”. The views on him were divided. Charles Bronson even went on to state publicly that people shouldn’t imitate Paul Kersey’s actions in the light of this.

Death Wish 3 is a gung-ho bullet storm of killing for those that like their action films violent. Winner directs this bad boy with brawn, though perhaps less brain this time. Bronson’s stoic nature wins me over every time and he brings a strange sort of minimalistic humanism to the whole affair. You like action? You need Death Wish 3!

9/10