Reviews

About a fifth of the way in to "Anyone But You," I jokingly thought they were doing "a 'Much Ado About Nothing' bit," then realized... they *were* essentially *doing* "Much Ado About Nothing" almost entirely (just omitting the antagonist aspect from the play).

The closest thing to a negative was their showing the "Much Ado About Nothing" title at the tail end, as though to say, "Get it? GET IT...?!" Sydney Sweeney is a natural comic actress, and she consistently knocks it out of the park with this film, which she also produced. This is a rom-com far superior to a lot of the genre. This is my first time seeing her in anything; turns out nearly everything on which she's worked I've not seen.

(I have soft spot for rom-coms, and certainly love slapstick comedy, and it didn't hurt in a few spots the film focused on the song "Unwritten," one of my top favourite songs (they don't do such end credits as they do here, which I always enjoy).)

Fellow hardcore horror film fans will love "St. Agatha." What sets this film apart from many horror films is its plausibility: this Could Happen (particularly in the late '50s when it is set, an important aspect some nay-sayer "reviewers" may overlook). Horror master Darren Lynn Bouseman knows how to build suspense and the extreme creepiness factor. Sabrina Kern as the hapless (though not entirely helpless) Mary nee Agatha, dominates the film even when her character is at her most vulnerable. Trin Millar is electrifying as the stoic, sadistic Paula, who always seems about half a step away from doing something horrific, generally reigned in by the far more terrifying Mother Superior, played with evil pleasantness by Carolyn Hennesy. This is quite an achievement should not go overlooked, and is best viewed at the cinema with a theatrical audience while you can. Understandably I look to forward to seeing what else is up DLB's sleeve for his next project/s.

It's impressive that this was made outside the constrained studio system. This is not your ordinary thriller. It has a bit of a slow pace but it's deliberate; one doesn't realize they're being drawn into the film until midway through. Rachel Alig plays a perfect, unfeeling sociopath, with utterly emotionless dead eyes; even when her manipulative character "smiles," her eyes don't. "Granny's House" does become almost a very dark comedy of sorts in its third act, and while this feature may not be for everyone, it's worth a look or two.

Nothing like a movie about a group of friends who not only all dislike each other to the point of loathing, but they have little to no redeeming qualities to make an *audience* like or empathize with any of the characters either. There are movies so bad they are good (a la Ed Wood or Tod Slaughter films), and there's just plain bad (like 99% of Uwe Boll's "work"). This film is barely tolerable even if you are a brilliantly talented MSTie riffer (e.g., Mystery Science Theatre 3000). Thankfully while I am rather talented in that regard (it's how my mind works All The Time), for those who are not so naturally talented in MSTie riffing, eventually into *this* film you'll just want to pull your own head off, painfully aware the movie "Taboo" robs you of about an hour and twenty minutes you'll never get back. Even my MSTie talents were barely a match for this slow paced, boring waste of time. The most puzzling aspect of this film is that *someone* green-lit and/or funded it... I rented "Taboo" solely for the normally talented Amber Benson, who clearly must have been blackmailed into doing this film. I've another lesser known film of hers in my rental queue, the reviews to which I'd better read first. Ironically the best aspect of the film was its impressive labyrinthine mansion for its interior location.

Many years ago my parents attended an estate sale and obtained an old 16mm projector. We were also given several 16mm films, one of which being the Curse of the Wraydons. It is one of the all time funniest "bad" movies ever made: how none of Slaughter's films made in onto Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (MST3K) is a mystery unto itself. The production values are not too bad, considering the high-end period costumes, but the cinematography and audio is so amateurish as to make this a great film for a group whose minds easily work in MST3K mode. One shot cuts to an extreme close up of Slaughter: it is clearly obvious it's supposed to be scary, but the shot is out of focus enough, and he's grinning from ear to ear enough that when showing the film to a fellow fan of Entertaining Bad Films nearly fell off his chair laughing. Some of the scenes' audio sounds as though recorded in someone's bathroom (particularly an odd fencing duel scene): no one at the time (or at least with this production) ever considered recording the lines separately and replacing inaudible lines with audible lines. Not all bad films are entertaining (e.g., In the Name of the King, D-Wars, etc.), but it's safe to say as a "film maker," Tod Slaughter gives Ed Wood a run for his money when it comes to his Inadvertently-Entertaining Bad films.

I expected "Saw II" to be Pretty Much Just Okay. I wasn't sure how it could surpass the original, considering the original film's Final Twist(s), and the trailer for this sequel didn't have me jumping up and down to see it. But "Saw II" surpassed any expectations anyone might have. While I wasn't surprised for Dina Meyer to reprise her role from "Saw," and I was pleased she has more to do here, I was even more pleased to discover the return of Shawnee Smith from the first film (my being a bit of a fan of this expressive underrated lovely and talented actress notwithstanding). But in this awesome sequel, the twists keep a'coming, and this film had me more on edge by *far* more than even the first. The tricks and traps are a bit more creative, and I love movie villains who have various contingencies covered. Which side is thinking ahead of the other? "Saw II" keeps the viewer guessing and stays true to the flavour of "Saw."

I came across this film last night as a DVD on a store-clearance table. I love horror films, campy slasher movies, certainly with self-declared Gratuitous Nudity, and anything so "bad" it was "banned" (in England, apparently). I figured at worst it would be so bad it was good (eg, funny). And it is: for true MSTie-minded folk, this is hilariously bad. The violence is extremely tame by today's standards: every kill-blow is off-screen and implied with blood splatter to rival "Evil Dead." Using good film stock, the cinematography jumps back and forth between impressive and annoying, though most of the annoyance is from the editing or rather, the lack of judicious editing. Shots linger on "performers" and scenes for far longer than necessary, and the girls' driving scenes almost make the driving scene from "Manos: The Hands Of Fate" look riveting. The two lead girls cannot act to save their lives, most of the time showing no expression from their lifeless eyes, cast mainly for their obvious no-problem willingness for full nudity for two wonderfully-shot "gratuitious" shower scenes. As for the thin plot, such as it is, if you cannot see the "twist" ending coming from *miles* away, smack yourself in th'head. The DVD contains an additional "comedy" commentary, which is lame and unstructured and its audio sounds like it was taped in someone's bathroom. Mike Nelson's commentary with "Reefer Madness" is wonderful, while with this DVD, the gaggle of unknown goofballs haven't a clue how to MSTie a film. It's sad when a bad film is actually better than the added-"comedy" commentary...

I should add, I LOVE that awesome, round-styled house! Amusingly, they use the same establishing shot. If you have the DVD, jump forward to the next chapter and you keep seeing the same shot of the house (bg).

Shot in Portland, the DVD also has a daytime-newsy local-TV show segment in which the writer/director and actress Janice Penner are interviewed. It his humorously awkward as it's their first on-air interview and they're rather nervous. When you see Janice Penner as the dowdy Marion, just try not thinking Miss Hathaway on "Beverly Hillbillies" ("Oh, Mr. Drysdale...") (g). (Gee, does anyone *else* remember that John Wayne's birth name was Marion (bg)?)

Final note (glancing through other commentary after posting mine): Take note of the hilarious user comment by Brian Morisky ("Taut thriller, great performances, 18 August 2001"). On one hand he's from Portland, Oregon and that's where this film was made, so I'm not sure if this is ironic satire (certainly across which it comes), or a loyal attempt to boost a locally-made film production made by local friends and acquaintances.

I came across this film last night as a DVD on a store-clearance table. I love horror films, campy slasher movies, certainly with self-declared Gratuitous Nudity, and anything so "bad" it was "banned" (in England, apparently). I figured at worst it would be so bad it was good (eg, funny). And it is: for true MSTie-minded folk, this is hilariously bad. The violence is extremely tame by today's standards: every kill-blow is off-screen and implied with blood splatter to rival "Evil Dead." Using good film stock, the cinematogaphy jumps back and forth between impressive and annoying, though most of the annoyance is from the editing or rather, the lack of judicious editing. Shots linger on "performers" and scenes for far longer than necessary, and the girls' driving scenes almost make the driving scene from "Manos: The Hands Of Fate" look riveting. The two lead girls cannot act to save their lives, most of the time showing no expression from their lifeless eyes, cast mainly for their obvious no-problem willingness for full nudity for two wonderfully-shot "gratuitious" shower scenes. As for the thin plot, such as it is, if you cannot see the "twist" ending coming from *miles* away, smack yourself in th'head. The DVD contains an additional "comedy" commentary, which is lame and unstructured and its audio sounds like it was taped in someone's bathroom. Mike Nelson's commentary with "Reefer Madness" is wonderful, while with this DVD, the gaggle of unknown goofballs haven't a clue how to MSTie a film. It's sad when a bad film is actually better than the added-"comedy" commentary...

Shot in Portland, the DVD also has a daytime-newsy local-TV show segment in which the writer/director and actress Janice Penner are interviewed. It his humorously awkward as it's their first on-air interview and they're rather nervous. When you see Janice Penner as the dowdy Marion, just try not thinking Miss Hathaway on "Beverly Hillbillies" ("Oh, Mr. Drysdale...") [g]. (Gee, does anyone *else* remember that John Wayne's birth name was Marion [bg]?)

Not many people realize that the Phantom is THE FIRST comic book hero, pre-dating Superman and pre-dating Batman. I grew up on the classic Lee Falk comic strip hero in my local newspaper. The ads for this film made me suspect it would be faithful to the character and storyline. When the film opens with the comic strip's classic line "For those who came in late…" (always used between the end of one storyline and the beginning of the next with one-day strip with a brief synopsis/reminder of the origin of the Phantom), I got goose bumps and the film maintained its integrity, unlike people who have no clue as to who is "The Phantom." While some alternations were made for it to be a little more PC (the Phantom's local pygmy people are omitted, possibly "replaced" by the Rope People we see at one point), the film's flavour remained untarnished. I can see why Billy Zane fought so hard for the role. Treat Williams clearly had a blast chewing up the scenery as the villain. Then-newcomer Catherine Zeta-Jones certainly had we males dislocating our jaws with amazement (it always pained me later she'd be referred to mostly as "Catherine Zeta-Jones from Zorro" for a time, as though this tongue-in-cheek action adventure film was to be neglected). For the non-intellect, this film may fare better on tape or on cable. For those who know the character from his origins, see it either there or if it should ever hit theatrical re-release. The saddest thing about this film is it has not yet spanned a series of sequels.