Monster Island is at it again, except this time we enter in to a virtual clone of Power Rangers, all of whom–named the Planet Patrol–take on Lord Doom and his lethal weapon Kraa! I’ve never seen any of the actual material for Planet Patrol (what little there is), nor am I aware of the back story, so “Kraa!” will assuredly be confusing for anyone paying attention. Especially when you see news footage from “Zarkorr!” blatantly reused for “Kraa!” All we’re told is that evil Lord Doom (who dons a stock skull mask and cape) is planning to unleash the Sea Monster Kraa! This monster will rise from the seas to conquer Earth, all the while Doom plans to take the planet’s ice for his world.
Tag Archives: K
The King of Fighters (2010)
The Karate Kid (2010)
You could have called this “Fist of the East,” or “Test of Fortitude” and it would have grossed obscene amounts of money at the box-office, regardless. It’s a movie that is so meticulously built to appeal to audiences and tickle every emotion possible, that it’s so much more a marketing gimmick than it is an actual movie. Calling it “Karate Kid” is just the icing on the cake. Eighties exploitation is huge. There are currently dozens of overgrown men on the cusp of forty mourning the days of Rocky Balboa, and cassette tapes, still bawling about how the eighties were so much better that calling it “Karate Kid” was a bonafide ticket to box office gold. Plus Jaden Smith is Will Smith’s son, and Will Smith always equals big bucks.
The Kids Are All Right (2010)
It’s very rare in pop culture today, where you can watch a film that is a drama and comedy, composed primarily out of performances with expressions and idiosyncrasies rather than endless diatribes and emotional outbursts drowning us in dialogue. With “The Kids are All Right,” the reactions and undertones of sadness are there within every single character. And it’s most important to ignore what they’re saying, and pay close attention to what they aren’t saying. Lisa Cholodenko’s dramedy about the modern family, and the plight of the odd structure of said family is a sad and typically miserable film about worshipping the wrong people, and reaching for a goal that is unobtainable. Every individual in this piece are looking for something to fulfill their lives, and sadly they will have the most difficult time looking for it.
Killer Cup 2: The Killer Cups Strike Back! (2004)
Oh god! They made a sequel! And it’s longer this time! A group of young people are going on a camping trip and have taken along the bare essentials like food, water, and styrofoam cups! The foreshadowing here is about as clunky as you’d expect with one of the characters making a point of declaring how big one of the cups are. Apparently it’s the master cup or chief general cup. In either case, what begins as a night of drinking and joking around (one of the campers even pretends to be bitten by the cup in a high-larious “gotcha” moment), soon all of the cups band together to strike back at the partiers and inflict carnage upon them.
Killer Cup (2002)
“Killer Cup” is about killer cups! What? You were expecting more? Alright fine! A.Normale’s short horror film entitled “Killer Cup” is pretty much a situation about what you see being what you get. Set to an obviously not copyrighted score by Rob Zombie, “Killer Cup” sets down at any school in the world where we view the plight of the Styrofoam cups used for tearing, smoker’s ashes, sunflower seeds and the like. Clearly, this is Michael Moore’s prologue to an upcoming environmental documentary right?
Knock 'Em Dead Kid (2009)
Director Christopher L. Golon’s coming of age drama could very well be mistaken for your average mumblecore flick that is storming independent film festivals of late. With a gritty realistic sense of direction, dialogue flows from the cast with startling energy. “Knock ‘Em Dead Kid” almost feels like something specifically tailor made of the more high brow festivals. While I did appreciate Mr. Golon’s appreciation for naturalism and depicting the reality of everyday monotony, he’s often much too obsessed with staging sleek scenes and character interaction to bring us on course for the actual story which involves protagonist Bret realizing that he’s outgrowing his friends and must move on and grow up. Channeling the likes of Larry Clark, director Golon follows these individuals around town as they walk around, chatter endlessly about their sexual preferences and engage in sexual activities with their lady friends.
The movie sets up a particular conundrum as its progresses as when we’re focused on Bret interacting with his friends he’s natural and down to Earth, but when we finally get to key scenes involving his development, especially one where a party guest approaches and flirts with him, the dialogue is noticeably stifled and stilted. The actors overplay their roles too strongly, and they never feel like they’re genuinely interacting, just going through the motions for Golon’s dialogue, and it restrains an otherwise potentially engrossing little slice of life. While I’m sure there are reasons for it, Golon never quite manages to stage the more important scenes in the movie well enough. If two characters are interacting he keeps one off frame, he sloppily cuts back and forth, and there isn’t a lot of dynamic when they’re being confronted.
Especially in the scene where Bret is approached by a cop questioning him about the beating he and his friends gave one of their rivals the night before. The ultimate weight on Bret is downplayed considerably as he never seems to be really disturbed about the fact that the cops may be on to his part in the beating which could mean definite jail time, and when he does obsess over it, he seems very calm as does his girlfriend who plays it off instead of offering the idea that what he did was horrible whether it was justified or not. There are elements that are unusual like the weird cutting away from Bret and his girlfriend to a montage when they’re discussing the incident in the beginning of the film. And of course there’s the female antagonist threatening to turn Bret over to infidelity which ultimately feels arbitrary and present just to create obligatory conflict in a story that already has a hefty portion of it.
I was never sure where to stand with Bret so I wasn’t positive if I should root him on or just wait for his downfall. Was he having trouble grasping his maturity and responsibilities or was he just a grade A prick? I juxtaposed the premise here with that of “Saturday Night Fever” and with some tweaking, Golon could have the same story with the same power. In the aforementioned film you could sense Tony Manero trapped in irresponsibility and stupidity to the point where he’d had enough and decided to grow up, but with Bret, I could never figure out what he had in mind and what he wanted to do with himself. Golon has on his hands a script that could work given better circumstances.
It’s a story with themes that requires actors with much more presence, and emotional turmoil and they sadly don’t deliver such promise in key sequences that should have been turbulent but are otherwise haphazardly conducted and rendered irrelevant to the overall result of Bret’s situation. While not a waste of time, “Knock ‘Em Dead Kid” isn’t as good as it has the possibility to be, and I hope Golon tries again with this premise in the future. Director Christopher L. Golon has the right idea and the right themes present for a movie that combines Larry Clark and classic mumblecore for a potentially great coming of age drama, but sadly its lack of focus, wonky editing, and uneven acting drown out most of its promise. It’s not the worst effort I’ve ever seen, but it can be so much more with a tightened second cut.