Director Wes Bencoster’s short horror film is a master stroke of a commentary on war and the inherent futility of the Vietnam war. Much like a horror film, “Hold Your Fire” begins with a gas masked soldier in a dusty land rooting through a landfill, and watches as a figure slowly creeps up on him. He fires shooting the figure in the head, and walks over to investigate the corpse. “Hold Your Fire” is based heavily on metaphor and symbolism paired with a thick irony that never spares a single second in displaying a world still affected by the Vietnam war, and how it still affects so many.
Author Archives: Felix Vasquez
Blood of 1,000 Virgins (2013)
Fine, Nikki Leigh. I’ll marry you. You don’t have to seduce me with your eyes. Surely, no one can replace Mistress Elvira, but Full Moon Grindhouse puts up a good argument for it, by bringing along Playboy Playmate Nikki Leigh to host their newest compilation. Now available for fans of Grindhouse and exploitation cinema, “Blood of 1,000 Virgins” is a fun and hilarious trailer compilation of some of the most iconic and dumbest films ever made. And they’re all about virgins, losing your virginity, and rape.
Roseanne: The Complete Ninth Season (DVD)
Season 9 of “Roseanne:” is one of the most jarring shifts in narrative tone and series concepts I’ve ever seen. Throughout the entire series we’re told time and time again that Dan and Roseanne are humongous fans of two shows: Bonanza and The Beverly Hillbillies. Someone thought it’d be a great idea if the final season of “Roseanne” took off from “The Beverly Hillbillies,” thus betraying every sensibility the show once had. Season 9 is an unwatchable calamity of nonsense.
It varies from really bad comedy to really awful melodrama, and paints its originally lovable characters as parodies of themselves. The once subtly dumb Mark is now a complete and total buffoon, Becky is utterly irrelevant in the skin of the poorly underused Sarah Chalke, DJ is given a boring love interest and suddenly wants to become a filmmaker, and all of the supporting characters are completely idiotic offering no laughs.
The Continuum – Witch of Deadwood (2013)
“Witch of Deadwood” is an animated short film very much in the tradition of Bakshi and fantasy works from Tolkien, where it’s easily accessible to all ages. “Witch of Deadwood” is a peak in to a very dangerous and complex world that is brought to life with rich animation by Raymond Kosta, along with wonderful direction by Larry Longstreth. Short but sweet, “Witch of Deadwood” is set on a family of dwarves traveling through a harrowing wooded area.
Superman III (1983)
Countdown to “Man of Steel”!
For the third installment of the “Superman” movie series, Clark Kent is now Dean Martin and Richard Pryor is Jerry Lewis. Pandering to the comedy crowds, the Salkinds cast Richard Pryor as the villain of the film, Gus Gorman. I don’t know why they couldn’t have cast a bad boy or big action star of the seventies and made him the villain, but what’s done is done. Richard Pryor plays Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman, an out of work computer programmer who becomes the unwitting nemesis to Superman.
Crank: High Voltage (2009)
I’m hesitant to bash anything Jason Statham is in, because I truly hope he continues delivering in solid adult action and thriller vehicles, and doesn’t resort to starring as a disgruntled babysitter in a family vehicle alongside some Disney moppet. In either case, while Statham is always a scene stealer, “Crank: High Voltage” is garbage. And not entertaining garbage like the first film, but garbage that should never have existed.
Girls Gone Dead (2012)
There is nothing worse than a slasher movie that takes forever to get going. Directors Michael Hoffman Jr. and Aaron T. Wells build a film almost two hours long that takes thirty minutes to really get in motion. I’m not averse to watching hot girls jiggle around and play in pools, but you have to give us something more if you’re not going to directly begin hacking characters to death. “Girls Gone Dead” doesn’t enter in to its actual plot until thirty minutes. The first half hour is nothing but filler and bad exposition. Save for a funny cameo from Linnea Quigley, the first half hour easily could have been cut or truncated for pacing.