Tag Archives: R

Revenge of the Nerds 4/5

Revenge of the Nerds

This is a lot of fun (very dodgy gender politics aside…), and is so 80s, and the 80s is awesome. Some great characters, especially Booger and Pointdexter.

I’d forgotten Booger Presley too.

Funny to see a young John Goodman as the pushy coach too.

Revolt of the Zombies 1/5

Revolt of the Zombies

Quite dreadful movie from the 30s that has two redeeming features – it’s only an hour long, and it apparently features Bela Lugosi’s eyes (lifted from White Zombie). The script makes very little sense, the zombies are kind of hypnotised guys, and the melodrama is quite sickening.

Avoid.

Repulsion 4/5

Repulsion

One of those movies that represents a primal nightmare, in this case of a single woman who is not comfortable with men. She hates her sister’s boyfriend leaving his razor etc in the bathroom over her things, she hates any intimacy shown both towards her and towards other women, she even find women talking about men uncomfortable.

Slowly, she imagines attacks, and descends into her own private madness where her imagination and reality become mixed and interchangeable.

A masterful movie, with the usually upright and confident Catherine Deneuve giving a mousey, timid performance, and looking more waifish than lovely.

Her look also is echoed in a later movie by Polanski – Rosemary’s Baby – where Mia Farrow looks like a short haired version of this poor girl.

Polanski would go on to reexplore urban alienation and madness in the masterful “The Tenant” several years after this.

Riddick 3.5/5

Riddick

A stripped down Riddick, getting back to basics that works so well, as it did in Pitch Black and was sorely missing in The Chronicles of Riddick. The first half hour was pretty damn good and distinct, with very little dialogue, and a lot of fun watching Riddick surviving brutal conditions and get the measure of the planet he’s been stranded on. It was like watching a decent movie version of the videogame Borderlands.

Eventually two sets of mercenaries/bounty hunters turn up to get him, and we get into territory that’s part retread of Pitch Black, part retread of the first (good) part of Chronicles.

Enjoyable, mindless actioner.

The Rescuers Down Under 3.5/5

The Rescuers Down Under

Rather charming Disney feature, unusually (at this time) a sequel. The animation seems to be a distinct step up from the late 60s/70s animation style (though many of the Disney’s from this period are classics, despite a basic animation style), and it’s a nice, light tail with a dark central character in the evil poacher, played nicely by George C. Scott.

I didn’t check this out, but the animation style, particularly of the poacher and his monitor lizard, seem very Don Bluth.

Return of the Jedi 4/5

Return of the Jedi

Fun to watch, and better than I remember it. I guess how much you enjoy this one may hinge on how much the ewoks grate on you. I like them. I find them charming, I like the tribal shennanegins and their primitive tech used to take down the empire forces (let’s ignore the hang-gliders though).

This really is a great movie, with the opening rescue taking the first act as a self-contained episode, setting up the finale as the main meat of the movie. But it’s a great first act.

The rest of the movie is in turns moving (Yoda’s finale scene as the ancient Jedi in his little hut), exciting (wow the speeder bike chase is great) and then splits into three threads of action that cuts together really well, though I think the emperor/luke/vader thread is the most enthralling one.

I do miss the old end music (why change it?), I thought Hamill in particular really delivered a great performance in this.

Revenge of the Sith 3.5/5

Revenge of the Sith

Rather enjoyable conclusion to the prequel trilogy, with some gaping flaws (Annakin turns to the dark side on some really dodgy-sounding arguments from Palpatine – I think the rationales used are fine, but the dialogue is weak), but some rather great bits too. The entire last two acts contain some great action and fight sequences, and is extremely dark (and the darkness of Annakin’s actions seem way too extreme a change for the weak-ish arguments used to change him to the dark side).

The last act does feel like a headlong rush to tick all the boxes of known Star Wars lore (Vader’s disfigruments caused by burning up in lava? Check. Obi Wan watching Luke from afar? check. etc etc), but it still works well – any slower would have been frustrating to watch.

I think I still enjoy Attack of the Clones more, but this was fun.

Movie: Red State: Interesting but flawed horror-thriller, with excellent first half 6.5/10

Red State

The latest film from Kevin Smith, and a big change of gear from his usual, jokey offerings, this is a film that changes gear about every 20 minutes or so – starting as a teen comedy, then switching to what appears to be torture-horror, then switching again to some kind of siege movie, then again to something else by the end (I won’t spoil it).

It stars Michael Parks doing a fantastic job as a fire-and-brimstone preacher so radical that neo-nazis distance themselves from him. If you can’t place him, he did the great semi-monologue at the beginning of From Dusk Till Dawn as a sheriff.  The first half of the movie is terrific, with Parks taking centre stage, but unfortunately it goes off the rails somewhat as events escalate.  It’s still fine (there’s even an action sequence that very well executed – which I am surprised Smith could pull off).

Also starring is the always-solid John Goodman as a weary, troubled G-Man brought in to handle the situation, but ordered to handle it in a way he doesn’t want to go.

It’s flawed – for one, we have no central character spanning the movie that we can sympathise with – Goodman doesn’t show up until about half-way-through – and the resolution is a little kooky – but somewhat amusing.

If it had kept the pace of the first half, and avoided the pure-exploitation route it seemed to be heading towards at the half-way point, this could have been a really great movie – maybe even a classic -but as it stands, it’s good and solid, and worth a watch.
OVERALL: 6.5/10
REWATCHABILITY: Every 5 years maybe
SUITABILITY: Strictly adults only