I do admire what director David Morgan goes for with a short black comedy about a small prank that leads in to a humongous shit storm of catastrophe and death, because I do tend to enjoy films like “Very Bad Things” that are about people with endlessly bad luck all because of one simple mistake. As far as premises go, “Adam’s Jacket” can be enticing, it’s just sad that it’s not very watchable.
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All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)
I loved “Mandy Lane,” I can’t deny it. It’s damn good, probably one of the best slashers in the last ten years. A masterpiece? Nah, not really. But what it is is a strong and surprising slasher film with characters that are actually engaging to watch. All the while it sets us up for some of the most vicious kills I’ve seen since “Sleepaway Camp.” Humorously enough, “Mandy Lane” is exactly what I was reminded of while watching, because both films feel like two completely different genre fueled narratives.
Amateur Porn Star Killer 2: The Snuff Version (2008) (DVD)
There’s a distinct difference between Shane Ryan’s movie version of “APSK 2” and his snuff version. One version is a safe and pretty clear fictional mock documentary chronicling Brandon and his ever devious quest to punish women. The other version, the snuff version, has much more balls. This is Shane Ryan’s original vision and more importantly, this is the actual director’s cut that dares to be much edgier and dynamic with its premise. While I completely understand the inevitable hot water Ryan would have gotten in to if he’d continued to pull the “fact or fiction?” gimmick with his “Amateur Porn Star Killer” movies, I really think in the end, it took something away. The constant reminders that this is fiction pretty much ruin any hopes of being sucked into the narrative. Sequels are hardly ever really good and frankly, there doesn’t seem to be a need for another from the Alter Ego flagship series, but “Amateur Porn Star Killer 2” is thankfully good enough where you can put your reservations aside to enjoy what Ryan puts on the table for us.
The Abductors (1972)
Ginger: All play and no work makes Ginger a swinging chick.
Painted like a television show “The Abductors” is probably one of the dumbest attempts at a franchise I’ve ever seen. Beginning on a very dark note involving sexual slavery and kidnap, director Don Schain then suddenly drops into light comedy with Ginger and her boss acting as a James Bond and M partnership with subtle flirting, and some goofy dialogue that’s written in short hand and makes for some awfully laughable preamble to Ginger’s next adventure. Ginger this time is on the track of a sexual slavery crime ring, a group of vicious men who steal women off the streets, destroy their property and force them into acting as sexual escorts for millionaires at the threat of torture. Ginger in all her swinging metropolitan allure is called in to investigate and penetrate this syndicate with hopes of rescuing a girl. After all, it’s women’s lib, and Ginger is about to kick some manimal ass.
The Andromeda Strain (2008) (DVD)
They blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell! Ah, Nuclear warheads, will we never learn? Shortly after “The Andromeda Strain” arrived to the A&E Networks last month, here we have the Special Edition DVD which is a shockingly great treatment for a television mini-series that just arrived. I know it’s not the first time a mini series gets a huge treatment, but you should see this. The casing is magnificent with a fold out front that allows you to read some of the content about it, and then there’s the DVD set which are two discs. I still don’t know why they split up the movie with two DVD’s bearing parts one and two, instead of just presenting the entire production as movie, I mean, that would make much more sense.
The Andromeda Strain (2008): Part One
If anyone knows me properly, then they know that I absolutely love post-apocalyptic fiction and it’s a wonder why I’ve never read Michael Crichton’s novel before. I guess I just never crossed paths with it. Although a bit gaudy at times, this new television mini series is packed with heavyweights both behind the camera and in front of them, and not a single person goes without serving some sort of memorable moment in the spotlight. Everyone is here, even Andre Braugher, the character actor who hardly ever appears in an ensemble without biting it before everyone. “The Andromeda Strain” is a bit familiar, but then Crichton only serves to explore our fear of space travel and the potential repercussions of discovering something alien. And unstoppable. What if we discovered alien bacteria that ravaged Earth? Would we even be able to stop it?
An American Crime (2007)
Last year I saw the film adaptation of author Jack Ketchum’s novel “The Girl Next Door,” a dramatic thriller based on the infamous case involving a young girl kept prisoner in a basement to be tortured relentlessly by her aunt and cousins. While I absolutely loved the Ketchum film, I was interested to see if it was any better or not as good as “An American Crime,” a festival runner that made considerable waves among audiences, but has yet to be released in America. Determined to seek out most (if not all) of Ellen Page’s prior work, I sought out “An American Crime,” and was surprised to see that it pretty much equaled in quality, and proved how much of a versatile actress Page is and will soon become.