Reviews

Based on the short stories by Angela Carter and written by Carter and director Neil Jordan, this is slow-moving but visually fantastic (in both meanings of the word!) werewolf film. Young girl (Sarah Patterson) dreams herself in the fairytale world and old village surrounded by forest full of wolves and werewolves. Her grandmother is played by Angela Lansbury, top-billed but in the supporting role, while the studio sets, costumes and rich photography create the wonderful fairytale/dream world. And the effect where white flower turns to red by blood is stunningly beautiful! I am not fan of Carter's morals - Bloody chamber and other tales, collection which featured the stories inspiring this film, was polluted by some gratuitous yuck effects and really sordid ageism against middle-aged and old persons - but she was a hell of a talent: it was fantastic read.

I give this movie two star and that's generous. This story of mediocre boxer and cold-blooded murderer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter is lies from beginning to the end - it could be funny if it was so wrong. Leaving out "antisemitism" of schizophrenic from Beautiful mind is one thing, making a victim of violent young scum as a pedophile is another. (Yes, the pedo beaten by young Carter was not pedophile at all.) The film also vilifies boxer who won Carter - guy must be racist and the match rigged ! - and invents a racist cop who hates Carter. The evidence against Carter is not noticed, nor his habits to beat women. What on Earth screenwriter or anybody else thought?

This movie about young queen Victoria, written by Julian Fellowes and directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, looks handsome in big screen, despite realistically flat lighting - shown especially in outdoor scenes and reminding the 18th century painter Francois Boucher's apt comment of nature being "badly lit". The film follows love story between prince Albert and Victoria, and criticizes rightfully Victoria's friend, totally rotten Lord Melbourne. This man did not only think that poor should be forgotten, he also was a murderer: after mistreated poor rioted in Wales in 1831 in so-called Merthyr rising he told a witness to lie so a non-guilty man could be hanged for wounding a soldier. There is pretty dresses, lavish dinners and quite good pacing for such a talkative story - I looked my watch only once. Nothing too impressive visually or drama-wise, but OK film.

After reading plot synopsis and seeing some fetching Hammeresque pics I gave this a shot, albeit with mixed expectations. Trash or Hammeresque Frankenstein Gothic? It is actually quite lush-looking picture, especially gorgeous costumes Lady Frankenstein (Sara Bay alias Rosalba Neri) and the little seen nominal heroine use, and although there is nudity and perverse necrophiliac slut as villainess, this offers more than I actually expected. (I MAY have seen cut version, which could partly explain Woody Woodpecker-like editing). Plot is rather traditional Frankenstein picture, but one with bad English dubbing and clumsy editing. Yes, it is hardly Grand Gorgeous Gothic (like Bram Stoker's Dracula or Mary Shelley's Frankenstein), but not Filth, Gore and Other Sleaze either.

How an earth can such a charming movie suffer from that bad IMDb rating? Probably because Beauty and the Beast (1962), little Hollywood B-picture, offers gorgeous dresses, lush colours and atmospheric Gothic settings instead of exploitation filth. Set in Renessance Italy, this is charming retelling of the fairytale, with the newlywed Althea (Joyce Taylor) finding out that her husband (Mark Damon) is cursed to be a werewolf at night. Michael Pate is villain and Merry Anders his evil but beautiful wife. With script by George Bruce and B-movie veteran Orville H. Hampton, costume design by Sabine Manela and Jerry Bos, music by Hugo Friedhofer and werewolf make-up from Hollywood legend Jack P. Pierce.

British Night after night after night (1969), written by Dail Ambler and directed by Lewis J. Force (Lindsay Shonteff), is sometimes erroneously called as Jack Ripper film. This is not the case: Night after night after night is set in 1960's London and features misogynist serial killer whose main (albeit not only) targets just happen to be prostitutes. In 1960's and 1970's it was fashionable to preach against the evils of older generations, while the sleaze and slime of younger one was either celebrated or denied: thus, it may not be just coincidence, who is the killer in Night after night after night. The film has three sleazy suspects: young man whore, porn-obsessed misogynist and quite pitiful middle-aged judge. Guess who is the killer? So trashily made it is actually quite fun to mock, although Jack May's judge, albeit hardly likable, evoked sort of pity in me.

Ah, the glamour and pure entertainment of Golden age Hollywood! Shapely saloon queen is caught in the middle of the Wyoming cattle war and between two men: suavely villainous gambler and distrusting sheriff hero. Red-haired Maureen O'Hara, the star of the picture among unknowns, and her dresses blaze in gorgeous 1950's Technicolor, and routine western shenanigans between cattle kings and new settlers are enjoyably went through. Script by Polly James and Herb Meadow is just an excuse to show beauty of O'Hara's heroine and her rosy cheeks, the scenery and glorious colours. Bad thing? No, not at all, on the contrary. Dennis Weaver, Sheriff McCloud from my childhood, has a minor role.

Charming, if silly western, clean and wholesome to the core (despite outrageously stupid scenes with stereotypically stupid Indians) and photographed with lush 1950's Technicolour which makes the scenery look lovely. The story has an artist Scott Brady trying to stop the war between whites and Indians, while romancing his fiancée Lori Nelson, his model Alison Hayes (who looks gorgeous in the aforementioned Technicolour) and an Indian princess Rita Gam. Directed by sci-fi expert Kurt Neumann from the script by Maurice Geraghty and Milton Krims, this is romantic, entertaining and as much fantasy as any fairytale.

Based on the novel by screenwriter John Ajvide Lindqvist, Swedish vampire film Let the right one in has school-bullied boy tormented by spineless sleaze and befriended with a vampire "girl" - actually a castrated boy - who shows her the importance of revenge. Yai! Idea of school-bullies tasting their own... medicine in long and repeated intervals is great one. Unfortunately, execution is terrible. It is slow-moving, with drab and ugly photography and visuals - people calling this movie beautiful boggles the mind. No gorgeous dream-like atmosphere and symbolism of best vampire films here. Being a vampire movie fan I can only say I disliked this film. Let the "unhelpful" votes to come.

Columbine killers apparently liked this story of computer genius Keanu Reeves who must to save the world from the illusion called Matrix. No, they didn't deserve to be tortured in the school, no one does, and instead of massacre they just should have make their tormentors to taste their own medicine in long and repeated intervals - but gaaawd, the duo's taste was awful. Cooler-than-thou posing and "action" while bystanders are brutally killed - that's the plot. High-tech imagery is ugly as hell - costumes, sets and photography look AWFUL. No, this is not -10 exploitation sleaze or crap like that, it is a real movie, but it is a bad one. And ugly, if I didn't already mention it.

Written and directed by Ernst Marischka, 1950's Austrian Sissi trilogy is charming fairytale about 19th century Bavarian princess Elisabeth or Sissi (Romy Schneider), who became wife of Empress Franz Joseph I (Karlheinz Böhm). Sensuous colours make dresses, sets and landscapes look gorgeous, and if what-really-happened-realism is replaced with what-should-have-been-fairytale, the story is enjoyable... just like fairytale. The films made Schneider a star but type-casted her, too. (Side-note: Sissi's mother was played by her real-life mother, Magda Schneider, who had been part of Hitler's social circle, and Böhm's career was later destroyed by 1960 British horror flick Peeping Tom.) Denying of crap? Great, I prefer roses!

I saw this Finnish, cheaply produced but absolutely charming vampire operetta/comedy Lepakkolinna (Bat Castle, 1980) in TV as a child and later I bought it as DVD. It is po-faced fun set in 1860's Transylvania, where a colourful group of travelers, including Viennese diva, her pianist named Strauss (of course!), a vampire-hunting monk and (real-life) 19th century scientist Pierre Pasteur end to the castle Dracula. They meet both Count (who looks like Christopher Lee) and Frankenstein's monster and try to save themselves from, gasp, becoming vampires. Kivikasvot (Stone-faces) was popular Finnish comedy group, and this hour-long film was made for TV.

1944 Hollywood meets Victorian England, complete with black-and-white photography, polite manners and old (old, not bad) acting. When Charles Boyer's greedy husband starts to subtly torture his fragile wife (Ingrid Bergman) to madness, Patrick Hamilton's play gets the full MGM treatment: this is elegant melodrama/thriller at it's best, folks, not gritty and sleazy modern cinema. Opulent period home, all black-and-white and complete with the flickering gas-lamps (it's all in your mind, dear), is clean from filthiness and pollution of the city, but Joseph Cotten as Scotland Yard detective has his suspicions of a certain husband... Sublime.

Based on the 1912 novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes (expanded from her short story), this third and best version of Lodger easily beats the earlier efforts - yes, including the silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The lushly produced, atmospheric film, written by play-writer Barre Lyndon, produced by Darryll F. "Gone with the wind" Zanuck and directed by German-born John (Hans) Brahm, Fox's 1944 Lodger is excellent Gaslight Gothic. It is set in fascinating, romantic milieu that unfortunately existed only in the movies - 1940's Hollywood version of Victorian London, complete with the opulent interiors, black and white photography, clean streets and clean-mouthed, literate dialogue, stalked by the murderer who is now called Jack the Ripper (not the Avenger, like in the novel and earlier film versions). Laird Cregar is sexually troubled lodger suspected as dirty deeds and despite his hate toward women, he is sympathetic just as the poor "actresses" he kills - more a troubled, tortured soul than your everyday sleazy misogynist. Merle Oberon is the pure and pretty heroine, a dance-hall actress and can can dancer, and George Sanders is the Scotland Yard detective. A classic.

A 1970's British film about two bisexual vampires (Marianne Morris and Anulka Dziubinska) who live in old mansion preying victims... Sounds great? Actually, it is uneven mix of attractive settings (good, good), siren-like female vampires (yai!), crude and laughable sex scenes (blah) and some less than elegant killing scenes (more blah). OK, it is better than VAMPIRES, John Carpenter's helming of Mark Jacoby's horrible script, but celebrated many for it's un-Hammer-like approach of blood-sucking lesbian nudity, my problem (as a vampire fan who does not like porn) is exactly that - it's vampire film with too little traditional vampire fun. Vampyres are not bad, but I will take elegant and atmospheric Hammer fun over this any day.

This is basically a remake of 1944 Lodger, starring Laird Cregar as another serial killer terrorizing Victorian London of 1940's Hollywood, shot again as black and white, written again by Barre Lyndon, directed again by John Brahm and and featuring Linda Darnell (replacing Merle Oberon) as another glamorous vaudeville performer courted by the killer. And yes, George Sanders gives support again, this time as a psychiatrist. However, Linda's unscrupulous Netta, so beautiful in lovely rose-decorated dress, is a villainess instead of heroine in peril, and Cregar's insane killer is not sex-hating mutilator of female bodies. Actually, this intriguing, if fictitious psychosis of doomed and sympathetic protagonist gives literally sanitized version of serial killing, which in real life is usually motivated by truly filthy perversions and not mental illness and never falls into the innocent-by-the-reason-of-insanity-category like in Hangover Square. All this lack of realism definitely helps the movie - made with all the class and taste of Golden Age Hollywood, where the dialogue and imagery are clean, the acting is melodramatic and women glamorous, Hangover Square provides fascinating story and milieu, and some fantastic shots like Netta's murder (!) which is reflected in the mirror lit by opulent gas-lamp, .

This TV movie starring Michael Caine and Cheryl Ladd has nothing to do with the plot of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1885 story Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, it is just an excuse for writer/director David Wickes to show 'Orribly Gothic melodrama set in late 19th century London. Hyde (Caine in a bad make-up) terrorizes prostitutes and Jekyll's beloved Cheryl Ladd and while the film is ridiculous as Hell, it has also lots of not too subtle charm. Ladd gets to parade in some lovely period costumes, sets are good and Miriam Karlin as red-dressed Madam is another proof how make-up department in this film really went over-the-top.

A group of friends save an autistic boy from bullies. Good - bullies are filth who should taste their own medicine. Literally. BUT... everything else in this Stephen King adaptation stinks. The script has the grownup friends going to the hunting trip and finding an alien invasion and one nasty army general, and the rehashed King clichés are just beginning. SK's dialogue and sleazy Freudian interest to stuff like anal aliens - voila! - are from the place where the sun does not shine, so is his need to make fat villains to be vilified and mocked - a grown-up school-bully, anyone? Why in Hades people like this sleazy, trashy, overrated hack!? If Dreamcatchers was a person, I would just say: Spare me from your filthy perversions, thank youuu.

Inspired by true story but utterly lacking reality, Sound of Music is a beloved and hated musical about Austrian novice (Julie Andrews) who becomes a governess of seven children, falls in love with their widowed father (Christopher Plummer)and eventually escapes Natzis with the family. Beautiful and clean and sweet like chocolate-box, smelling with roses, Sound of music is well-made product of old-fashioned, skill-filled Hollywood. It is totally unrealistic escapism, and, according to Milan Kundera, movies like this are denying of crap. Oh, yes, Milan, so they are... so they indeed are! And that's good, because I prefer roses.

And despite the characterization, the film-makers guilty of this sleazy, trashy and gory crime can't plead insanity, either. Poor Caroline Munro is long way from her Hammer films Dracula AD 1972 or Captain Kronos - Vampire hunter and Joe Spinell has left trashy and sleazy artsiness of Taxi driver to play a mentally ill killer, sympathetic although his actions are truly disgusting. The duo meets and befriends (shades of Peeping Tom) but the disgusting disease in the killer's brain may put the sweet heroine in danger... Wholesome cleanliness and beauty is not the name of the game, while gore effects by Tom Savini star with Caroline and Joe.

Yes, one of the best versions of Jack the Ripper, thanks to the gorgeous production values, wonderfully entertaining script and so much atmosphere it could be cut with Jack's knife. Score which ranges from the pseudo-Victorian grandeur to the thrilling spookiness is also a plus. Only problems come in the moral sense. First, Sir William Gull was not the Ripper. He was an old, paralyzed man and THERE IS NOT ANY EVIDENCE to tie him with the murders. Also, the film's "psycho-logy" and lack of understanding when mental illness is concerned (psychosis is supposedly the motive behind crimes of Jack) belongs in the Whitechapel sewer.