After “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” actor Sean Penn barely skidded the realm of being typecast and completely destroyed his break out role by taking on a new form as a dramatic actor. One of his more intense efforts is the 1983 “Bad Boys,” an underrated but excellent near masterpiece about boys on the verge of being men who don’t realize they’re about to become hardened criminals if they don’t break out of their cycles of violence soon. “Bad Boys” is a message at the core about when these young men will transform in to individuals capable of being tried as adults and when they will eventually make it in to an actual penitentiary. In the realm of “Bad Boys,” the penitentiary is the final stop for these young men, and counselor Ramon Herrerra makes a point of showing main character Mick O’Brien his environment, if he doesn’t find a way to change his fate soon.
Tag Archives: B
The Backwater Gospel (2011)
Who needs a monster when you can allow people to become the monsters themselves? When you throw in a bunch of bigoted narrow minded individuals together, and hand them superstitious hokum to chew on, you’re going to get a good idea of who they are and who they will become in due time. The town in a desert hole finds itself fearing the reaper every time the dreaded undertaker comes around to take measurements for death’s latest toll, and uses their Christian beliefs as a shield against his menace.
Tales from the Crypt Presents: Bordello of Blood (1996)
I think with enough competent writers and good ideas, “Tales from the Crypt” could have lived on with a series of anthology horror pictures that could have told some bang up horror stories. I mean, the cinematic versions of the show are what John Carpenter originally planned for “Halloween.” Separate movies with various tales revolving around themes, and “Tales from the Crypt” almost pulled it off. They started off very well with “Demon Knight” and while they completely fumble with “Bordello of Blood,” it’s not a total disaster. There’s much to be desired, but there’s still a lot to enjoy here. It’s tough to follow up what the first film in the series accomplished as a low budget demon film with some great performances, but “Bordello of Blood” does try for individuality and humor where it fails in scares and creeps. I would not call this film scary at all, but it does supply some snarky humor and some incredible eye candy.
Body Snatchers (1994)
It seems every other decade or so, there has to be a big screen adaptation of Jack Finney’s seminal science fiction novel about aliens that transform in to you when you’re sleeping. 1956 saw the Kevin McCarthy masterpiece that basically explored the fear of McCarthyism, 1978 had the pretty damn good Donald Sutherland creep fest journeying in to the fear of conformity in an age where the free love movement had died, and even in 2007 there was the reworked flop “The Invasion” which attempted to prey on our delirium about biological warfare and terrorism (and failed). 1994’s version is a horror film that’s meant to pretty much just be a horror film.
Basket Case 3: The Progeny (1992)
Thanks a lot to Frank Henenlotter for only making three “Basket Case” movies. I really couldn’t mentally handle eight or nine movies about Belial and his life with his moronic brother Duane. These two buffoons have to be the most non-threatening horror figures since Chucky. Duane went from a tortured soul to a goofy sidekick in three films, while Belial started life as a rabid monster incapable of speak to a daddy expecting children. After diddling fellow freak Eve in “Basket Case 2,” Belial unwittingly knocked her up, and now is expecting babies. Duane, after killing cardboard cut out Susan, and involuntarily stitching Belial back to him, has been locked up in a padded cell left to consider what he’s done.
Basket Case 2 (1990)
It’s pretty hilarious how though the sequel to “Basket Case” is said to have taken place the night after Duane failed to commit suicide with Belial, actor Kevin Van Hentenryck seems to have aged since the first film from eight years prior. “Basket Case 2” embraces the idiocy this time around, taking the route of the “It’s Alive!” sequels. Rather than Belial being a rare case of a deformed monster, we learn that there are in fact a tribe of deformed monsters of various dispositions living in the suburbs. And they’re all being cared for by the eccentric Granny Ruth who not only cares for them but acts as their therapist. The line “I understand your pain, Belial, but ripping the faces off people may not be in your best interest.” is actually delivered with a dead pan expression.
Basket Case (1982)
Sometimes with the good Grindhouse titles of the seventies and eighties, there are also the truly awful ones that make it through the ringer and come out looking pretty. Unfortunately Frank Henenlotter’s “Basket Case” is a piece of junk that has managed to garner a massive reputation as a horror classic. For what reasons? I have no idea. I guess because Henenlotter is such a creative and interesting director. I won’t lie, a movie about a guy walking around with his deformed brother in a basket is original, but that doesn’t mean it’s watchable. Duane Bradley is an average guy with a large secret who has just made it in to New York, and is living in a hotel with some of the most idiotic neighbors around. They’re all so eccentric and colorful it becomes obnoxious after their second introduction.