THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO -- Movie Review by Porfle

 (This review originally appeared online at Bumscorner.com in 2006.)

The prolonged imprisonment without trial of suspected Islamic terrorists within the U.S. military base at Guantanamo, Cuba remains a source of heated controversy, and the same can most likely be said of THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO (2006), Michael Winterbottom's award-winning docudrama about three British Muslims, known as "The Tipton Three", who ended up there for over two years before finally being released without charge.

 We are first introduced to the real Asif Iqbal in a close-up shot as he speaks into the camera and begins his story of the day he left England in September, 2001 to return to his native Pakistan in order to take part in a pre-arranged wedding, with his friends Ruhel, Shafiq, and Monir along for the ride. (Ruhel and Shafig will also appear in such interview segments throughout the film.)

Intercut with these shots is a documentary-style reenactment with actors portraying the actual people. We see them travel to Pakistan, where Asif meets his intended bride. By night they sleep in a mosque to avoid hotel charges, and by day they wander the city reacquainting themselves with their homeland.

 Then the four young men, along with Shafig's cousin Zahid, decide to take a long bus ride into Afghanistan just as it is coming under attack by the U.S. military shortly after 9-11. (Their intention, ostensibly, is to "help out", but why four young sightseers from Tipton suddenly want to travel into the heart of a heavily-bombed war zone is beyond me.) Conditions steadily worsen along the way, and one of them becomes gravely ill--he dreams of eating gooey pizza back home with his friends as they flirt with the girls in the next booth--as the bombing and subsequent chaos around them intensify.

After days of lying around a mosque in Kabul doing nothing, they become disenchanted with their mission and arrange for transport back to Pakistan. This ill-fated journey takes them through scenes of death, destruction, and horror that are presented largely as though filmed through the lens of a news camera, complete with night-vision shots of people huddled in a ditch for cover, their eyes eerily aglow. Indeed, much of it is interspersed with actual news footage whenever possible, and it's sometimes hard to tell where the reality ends and the reenactment begins.

 Seemingly unaware that they are being taken away from the Pakistani border and into the war zone, they soon find themselves captured near Konduz by the Northern Alliance while in the company of armed Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters and are eventually flown to the U.S. base at Guantanamo, where they will be held for the next two-and-a-half years as suspected terrorists. (The fourth member of the party, Monir, disappeared while in Afghanistan and was never heard from again.)

It's at this point that THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO began to remind me a bit of Alan Parker's 1978 film MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, based on Billy Hayes' account of his ordeal in a Turkish prison replete with brutal guards and frequent torture. Just as damning and one-sided as that story was against the Turks, here we find the Americans depicted as sadistic, almost soulless tormentors subjecting our heroes to endless bouts of cruelty and relentless interrogation.

Although Billy Hayes portrayed himself as the good guy in his story, which seemed amplified even more so by Parker, he was still admittedly guilty of drug smuggling--here, the "Tipton Three" are portrayed with as much wide-eyed innocence as director Michael Winterbottom and their own first-hand accounts can muster, and it's appalling to see what they are subjected to during their stay in Guantanamo until their final release.  

But how much of what we are seeing is the truth? Even if one accepts the conditions at Guantanamo to be accurately depicted, there's still the problem of just what these guys were doing in Afghanistan at the time, and whether or not they're telling us the whole truth and nothing but. Shooting a fact-based film to look like a documentary doesn't make it any more of one than, say, THE FRENCH CONNECTION (or even THIS IS SPINAL TAP!), regardless of how much the viewer may be lulled into thinking so by a realistic visual style coupled with the filmmakers' point of view.

As a film, it's pretty involving and generally well-done, although the latter half tends to drag at times. But a brief look at some of the information relating to this story on the Internet yields a few nagging questions about the history of "The Tipton Three" and their possible motives. Some of it may be true, some may not be--but you'd never know from watching THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO that there was ever any question as to the veracity of any part of this story, and thus it fails to present it in anything other than a single, biased point of view that can hardly be taken as the final word on the subject.

THE ROAD TO GUANTANAMO -- Movie Review by Porfle

LUNOPOLIS -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 9/24/11

 

"Blair Witch"-style mockumentaries...conspiracy theories...UFOs..."The X-Files"...various other paranormal stuff...if any or all of these things spark your interest, then chances are LUNOPOLIS (2009) will really pop your cork. 

It also helps if you get into stuff like The History Channel, too--much of the middle section of the film looks like it might have been produced for it, with its various "expert" talking heads and illustrative graphics--but if you don't, then this film is equally likely to act as an effective cure for insomnia.  Me, I bought into it hook, line, and sinker and thus found it uniquely fascinating from start to finish.

The premise is that a documentary film crew led by Matt (writer-director Matthew Avant) and Sonny (Hal Maynor)  has gotten ahold of a weird photograph, supposedly smuggled out of Area 51, that leads them to an underground facility beneath a Louisiana swamp.  Their cinema verite' exploration of this dark, dungeon-like space is claustrophobic and creepy, leading to the discovery of a strange device that looks a bit like a makeshift jet pack.

After shadowy figures chase them back to the surface, they take the device back to the lab and activate it.  Its wearer disappears for almost five seconds, then everyone in the room is zapped unconscious.  Further investigation brings them into rough contact with the Church of Lunology, whose scary, threatening followers make Tom Cruise look normal.  Deeper into the rabbit hole they go, uncovering a plot involving a secret city on the moon (whose inhabitants are already among us) and a mission to send time travelers into the past to tweak our history, thus creating an overlapping jumble of parallel dimensions. 

What makes LUNOPOLIS so convincing is the realistic acting of its leads, who are excellent at seeming spontaneous and unrehearsed (something even the greatest actors can be incapable of).  Most of the camcorder sequences really do look like actual found footage (albeit very nicely shot and edited), making it even more disconcerting when a black car that the film crew are following suddenly takes off like a rocket. 

Most impressive is Dave Potter as purported moon escapee David James, whose folksy demeanor is a stark contrast to the mindbending personal account he gives to Matt and Sonny. This includes his knowledge of an upcoming "paradox date"--December 21, 2012, unsurprisingly--upon which something referred to throughout the film as "The Event" will take place.  Once you get an idea of what this entails, the suspense begins to build with the impending revelation of what will happen on that date.

Like "Blair Witch", LUNOPOLIS is supposedly assembled from found footage taken by participants who have gone missing, which becomes more and more intriguing as their discoveries lead them deeper into some really juicy, dangerous, hardcore conspiracy stuff.  Halfway through the film comes the History Channel-type material, which, if you've gone along with it all up to that point, will continue to fascinate with its dizzying explorations of time travel, multiple dimension overlap, the Roswell incident, the secret origins of not only Lunopolis but Atlantis as well, and other scintillating ideas which not only sound as convincing as any of those shows you see on TV but also increase our unease about that impending paradox date. 

By the time we return to the camcorder footage and the story proper, Matt and Sonny are on the run from a host of scary people while becoming inextricably involved in the events they're investigating.  The pace never lets up until the exciting finale, which brings the story full circle with an event--"the" event, that is--bristling with surprises and startling revelations. 

The DVD from Walking Shadows and Virgil Films is in 16:9 widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and both subtitles and closed captions.  Extras include a trailer and an entertaining commentary by Avant and associate producer Michael David Weis.

Even freakier in its own low-budget way than THE MATRIX but without the need for flashy SPFX, LUNOPOLIS is a greatest-hits package of conspiracy theory goodness that would have Fox Mulder thinking he'd died and gone to heaven.  According to the commentary, some people are coming out of screenings thinking they've just watched the real thing, and it's not hard to imagine why.  It's a science-fiction film that presents some truly mindboggling concepts in a realistic and believable way, and the result is so satisfying that you might want to believe, too.

LUNOPOLIS -- DVD Review by Porfle

PAPER HEART -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 11/21/09

 

There are documentaries--films which record actual events as they happen--and mockumentaries like THIS IS SPINAL TAP, which spoof them. And then there's PAPER HEART (2009), which only partially succeeds at being both.

Comedienne and musician Charlyne Yi (CLOVERFIELD, KNOCKED UP), who executive-produced and co-wrote the film, stars as herself. The idea is that Charlyne not only doesn't know what love is, but she doesn't really believe in true love at all. So she takes off on a cross-country odyssey with director Nicholas Jasenovec (portrayed in the movie by actor Jake Johnson) and a film crew to ask really-real-life couples to talk about their love experiences.

During this time, Charlyne meets Michael Cera (played by Michael Cera, Yi's actual boyfriend at the time) and they start to fall for each other. Eventually Charlyne and Michael chafe under the constant scrutiny of the film crew and want to pursue their burgeoning courtship in private, to the chagrin of director Nick. Will Charlyne find the meaning of true love with a camera crew following her every move?

PAPER HEART has little trouble convincing us it's a real documentary early on, as Charlyne and Nick hatch the idea for the film and set off on their quest. Yi merely has to be herself here, and she's cute and funny--a natural. Despite being a washout as an interviewer, her gawky charm endears her to the various couples she meets and encourages them to open up and reveal some warm, moving anecdotes about themselves. She also wins over a group of yakky kids in a playground and a raunchy gang of bikers and their chicks in a dive bar. These sequences are very appealing and the stories are sometimes augmented by funny re-enactments using crude paper dolls and crayola-scrawled scenery.


It's only when the contrived situation of her meeting and being wooed by the boring Michael sets in that the film starts to get bogged down. This is especially true when, having separated from Michael after he's unwilling to continue with the film project, a distraught Charlyne has to quit being herself and actually act. This is hard enough in a fictional setting, but it's even harder to be convincing when you're pretending that you aren't really acting. (All three leads seem artificial in these plot-moving scenes.) It's something that even much better actors are often unable to do--just think of all those fake "man-in-the-street" interviews you've seen that never quite capture the impression of real people talking. Also, the sound quality and multiple camera angles in these scenes are just too good to come off as on-the-fly documentary footage.

As the fictional story nudges its way to the forefront, we begin to look forward to the brief real-life interludes. One highlight occurs at a wedding chapel in Las Vegas that features its own Elvis impersonator. Another takes place in an empty courtroom as a male judge and a female lawyer recount their long-term love affair with a quiet, deep-seated affection. A visit with two gay guys in New York gets serious when one of them becomes emotional about the death of a former lover. These heartfelt segments, capturing genuine examples of true love that leave a lasting impression, only make the sham-doc parts of the movie seem even more shallow.


The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with 5.1 Dolby surround and English and Spanish subtitles. Extras include featurettes "Paper Heart Uncut" and "The Making of Paper Heart", deleted scenes, an interesting live musical performance by Charlyne, the music video "Heaven" by Charlyne and Michael (who also scored the movie), and brief interviews with various actors and comedians about their views on love.

PAPER HEART is fun to watch when it's dealing with real people and their compelling love stories, but loses its lighthearted charm when it goes from doc to mock. Maybe it should've just been done as a straight documentary--Charlyne Yi has the bubbly personality to carry it for real, and who knows? They might've captured a serendipitous finale that resonates much more than the cute but hollow paper-doll fantasy that ends the movie.

PAPER HEART -- DVD Review by Porfle

PSYCHOANALYSIS -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 7/21/17

 

First-time director James Raue tries his hand at the mockumentary thing with the mostly interesting PSYCHOANALYSIS (2015, Candy Factory), which takes on the form of a TV documentary being filmed with a famous psychologist as its subject.

What gives the premise its zing is the fact that this celebrated rock-star headshrinker, the cocksure Paul Symmonds (Benedict Wall), has just lost five patients to suicide in a week's time.  This calls into question not only his unorthodox methods but his very competence as well.

Adding insult to injury, Paul must submit to having both of these assessed by none other than his main rival, Dr. Andrew Fendell (Ryan O'Kane), whom he suspects of being behind the deaths in an effort to eliminate the competition. 

The question of whether the suicides were a result of Paul being too intimate with his clients--which Fendell points out as the most fatal flaw in his methods--or something more sinister is at work against Paul is the scintillating mystery that lures us into the story.

What makes it increasingly interesting is watching Paul grow more and more obsessed with uncovering what he sees as a conspiracy against him and the lengths he eventually goes to in order to prove it. This includes enlisting the willing aid of a former client, Ryan (Michael Whalley), whose mental state is questionable at best.

As the various conflicts drag on, Paul's marriage to wife Ally (Jennie Lee) begins to suffer and his desperation drives him to take greater risks which put his reputation on the line.  The mystery of the five suicides remains compelling throughout the film and keeps us watching.

The film does have its negative points, however.  The acting ranges from quite good to somewhat overly arch in some scenes. There's an ill-advised attempt toward some kind of dark comedy, particularly with the "Ryan" character, which I found jarring.  Things also tend to drag here and there overall.

Still, PSYCHOANALYSIS overcomes the occasional awkwardness of its documentary framework and ultimately comes off as a satisfying experience.  I especially like the unexpected way in which the mystery is finally resolved, not with a burst of sensationalism but with a sort of bitter, understated irony.

Type: DVD/Digital HD (iTunes, Amazon, Google Play)
Rating: N/A
Running time: 79 min.
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Audio: Stereo
Street date: July 25, 2017

PSYCHOANALYSIS -- DVD Review by Porfle

ATROCIOUS -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 10/9/11

 

Ever since THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT terrified some and left others wondering what the fuss was all about, filmmakers have been cranking up their camcorders and trying their hand at making the next really scary horror mockumentary.  Some, like the recent EVIL THINGS, come close to recapturing that old spooky vibe, while others are about as exciting as watching somebody's home videos.  And then there's ATROCIOUS (2010), which left me feeling just about as creeped out as any movie has in a long time.

Cristian Quintanilla (Cristian Valencia) and his sister July (Clara Moraleda) are amateur documentarians whose specialty is investigating paranormal urban legends.  When the family takes an Easter vacaion in their secluded villa in Spain, they find that the old house comes with its own legend of a young girl named Melinda who disappeared in the surrounding woods long ago and is now said to be haunting them.  Camcorders at the ready, Cristian and July discover an overgrown hedge labyrinth next to the house, surrounded by a deep, dark forest.  Melinda's forest.

ATROCIOUS follows the usual pattern of spending a whole lot of time with everyday happy-type stuff to lull us into a false sense of security before things start to get scary.  We get to know Mom and Dad, little brother Jose, and family friend Carlos before bro and sis make a thorough exploration of the hedge maze during sunny daylight hours, goodnaturedly needling each other as siblings do.  Even then, they easily get lost, and we start to wonder what it'll be like out there in the dark when they're running in blind terror, which we know is pretty much inevitable.

That big old house is spooky enough with its winding stairways and dank basement filled with junk, including a vintage TV/VCR combo that will figure into the story later on.  From their attic bedroom the three siblings keep watch on the rusty gate leading into the labyrinth, and are filled with apprehension when strange sounds can be heard eminating from it.  When their dog disappears, their search turns up a grisly discovery that foretells the dire events in store for the family. 

Although the film is barely 75 minutes long, some viewers will probably find all this preliminary stuff interminable.  Somehow, though, a well-done mockumentary of this sort tends to hold me in fairly rapt attention as I tensely await, and dread, the onset of the bad things.  Besides, a movie like this has to be allowed to build if it's going to deliver more than simple visceral shocks.

Here, it's the disappearance of little Jose while searching for their family dog that drives the rest of the family to rush frantically into that pitch black hedge maze at night.  Using the night vision on their camcorders (thus giving them a logical reason to still be carrying the damn things), Cristian and July find themselves stumbling through a nightmare world filled with ominous shapes and strange sounds, until they finally encounter what they've been looking for all along.  And that's just when ATROCIOUS really starts getting scary.

You have to hand it to writer-director Fernando Barredo Luna for managing to squeeze maximum chills out of such minimal filmmaking.  His cast of very natural actors get a lot of the credit, too, not only for making their characters so believable but for actually doing much of the camerawork themselves.  Adding to the spontaneity of their performances is the fact that the story's final reveal was kept hidden from them until filming.

The DVD from Vivendi and Bloody Disgusting is in widescreen with 5.1 sound.  You can listen to either the original Spanish soundtrack with English subtitles or the English dub.  Extras consist of a 15-minute "making of" featurette and the film's trailer.   

The final sequence, a combination of home video, police video and crime-scene photographs, and other disturbing footage, pays off in a way that is lacking in the more open-ended examples of the genre, and left me with the queasy realization that I'd just been truly frightened.  Of course, you have to use your own imagination to fully appreciate what ATROCIOUS doesn't show--suggestion can still be scarier than the most graphic visuals if you're properly tuned in to what the film is trying to do.  If you want to be scared, try tuning into this nifty little chiller.

ATROCIOUS -- DVD Review by Porfle

APOLLO 18 -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 12/13/11

 

I love a good "found-footage" mockumentary if it's done right, as it was with THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (the grandaddy of FFMs) or the recent ATROCIOUS.  And as an avid fan of the USA space program during the 60s, I was sucked right into APOLLO 18 (2011) from the very start and stayed there till the classic "film running out of the projector" ending. 

The film is supposedly edited together from several hours of classified NASA footage of a secret moon shot which took place after the official "final" moon mission, Apollo 17.  Lt. Col. John Grey (Ryan Robbins) orbits the moon in the command capsule while Commander Nathan Walker (Lloyd Owen) and Captain Benjamin Anderson (Warren Christie) settle onto the lunar surface and start collecting moon rocks.  But first, they have to set up and activate a mysterious device--whose ostensible purpose is to track Soviet missile activity--at the behest of the Department of Defense.



All of this is presented via extremely convincing simulations of the aged, sometimes ragged film footage we've all seen of early NASA missions (along with simulated 8mm home movies of the astronauts and their families), which match almost seamlessly with generous stock footage of the real thing.  Close views of the moon suspended against a black void create an eerie, baleful mood early on and we begin to get a sense of the astronauts' total isolation.  This is heightened when Nate and Ben sit on the moon's surface in their cramped lander, as alone and vulnerable as two people can be, or explore a realistically-rendered lunar landscape strewn with pitch black shadows.

Director Gonzalo López-Gallego, aided by a cast of actors who are very adept at acting natural and unscripted, recreates the sort of light banter and good-natured antics we used to see from real astronauts when they knew the whole world was watching them.  Knowing that APOLLO 18 is a space horror film, however, and that the DOD doo-dad they've just set up must somehow bode ill, gives us a growing unease as little things begin to happen that alter the casual mood of the mission to one of severe apprehension.  And since the world is unaware of this particular moon shot, these guys are really on their own when they begin to suspect that they've been set up.

López-Gallego uses many clever visual tricks to create a spooky mood or, in some cases, a genuine jump-scare.  An astronaut takes photos in a dark crater until one flash suddenly reveals something terrifying; a seemingly random static shot of the moonscape or LEM interior seems harmless until we think we see movement in the periphery. 

The setting is especially effective because when these guys hear a mysterious noise or spot something moving around, it isn't rats in the woodwork and it sure ain't the wind.  As the unexplained and seemingly impossible events begin to escalate, so does the sense of claustrophobia and paranoia within the astronauts' fragile haven of life support.



I've tried to avoid giving anything away because not knowing is a major part of the fun with this movie.  I will say that Nate and Ben make some gut-wrenching discoveries on the moon (some of them quite queasily horrific) which force them to question everything they believe about the space program in general and their own increasingly doomed mission in particular.  Rarely does a story get to present a situation in which two guys are so utterly screwed, and I was with them all the way--vicariously, thank goodness--until the haunting final images. 

The DVD from Anchor Bay, Dimension, and the Weinsteins is in 1.78:1 widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound and subtitles in English and Spanish.  Extras include a very informative director and editor commentary, deleted and alternate scenes, and four alternate endings.  The film comes as a Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital combo--this review is for the DVD only. 

As I understand, the majority of reviews for APOLLO 18 have not been favorable, with words such as "boring" and "suspense-free" popping up here and there.  I found the film riveting from beginning to end--it reminds me of the kind of stuff Joseph Stefano used to write back when "The Outer Limits" was in its heyday, an uneasy mix of both "sense of wonder" and hopeless dread.

APOLLO 18 -- DVD Review by Porfle

FIST OF FEAR, TOUCH OF DEATH -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 4/25/20

 

Some movies take material that's unused or left over from other films, shoot new footage to augment it, and repackage it all as a new film. But every once in a while a movie is such a mishmash of various elements that it looks like something out of Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory.

Which brings us to the 1980 martial arts monstrosity FIST OF FEAR, TOUCH OF DEATH (Film Detective), one of the most stupefyingly shameless Bruce Lee death-sploitation pastiches you'll ever see.

Being that he was the most popular martial arts superstar of all time, Bruce Lee's death brought on an endless parade of cash-ins that used either random footage of the man himself or lookalikes pretending to be him, or both, all hoping to appeal to fans of actual Bruce Lee films such as ENTER THE DRAGON.

Here, exploitation producer Terry Levene discovered a print of a black and white film called "Thunderstorm" which featured a very young Bruce Lee in a pedestrian family drama.

Redubbing it to turn it into a story of a young man who wants to be a martial artist despite his parents' wishes, Levene also added lengthy scenes from an unrelated samurai film as flashbacks, its lead character now identified as Bruce's great-grandfather who was a great warrior.

But Levene wasn't done yet. To this he added new scenes with action star Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, martial arts legend Ron "The Black Dragon" Van Clief, and fight promoter and star Aaron Banks, in a wraparound scenario which takes place during a major fight event at Madison Square Garden in which a new successor to Bruce Lee is to be named.

Some of the ring action is as fake as WWE wrestling (one fighter plucks out an opponent's eyeballs and tosses them to the fans) but there are also some exhibitions of skill and a climactic kickboxing match.

With Banks promoting the actual event, a non-union film crew was allowed access disguised as a TV news crew, including golden-voiced actor Adolph Caesar (who would later be nominated for an Oscar for A SOLDIER'S STORY) serving as both sports commentator and the film's narrator.

Caesar's narration and interviews with actual fight stars give the film a mockumentary quality at times, and his reminiscences about Bruce Lee's early life serve to introduce the "Thunderstorm" footage.

This storyline fails to generate much interest save for the novelty of seeing the charming young star playing a "gee whiz" teen who just wants to skip homework and attend the big karate match.  The "samurai" scenes are even less compelling since we keep joining them in progress and don't really know or care what's going on in them.

In fact, when the film starts juggling scenes from these different old movies in earnest, you may want to start chapter skipping through them just to see what this dizzying patchwork narrative has in store for us next.

I like the Fred Williamson storyline, with some funny touches such as having everyone mistake him for Harry Belafonte. When he fights over a taxi with a nerdy white dude in a suit, I even laughed out loud at the obviousness of the guy's name (scripter Ron Harvey as "Jasper Milktoast").

Later, martial arts star Bill Louie rescues two women from being raped in the park, fighting off a horde of thugs while dressed as Bruce Lee's character "Kato" from TV's "The Green Hornet." And interlaced with all this is actual interview footage of Bruce Lee, dubbed with new dialogue.

Restored from the original 35mm camera negative, the print is not bad at all for an old grindhouse flick such as this. Special features include trailers and a lengthy making-of featurette with Levene, Harvey, Williamson, Van Clief, and director Matthew Mallinson which I actually found more enjoyable than the feature (!) The keepcase includes liner notes from Will Sloan and Justin Decloux, hosts of The Important Cinema Club podcast.

Bottom line: if you get a kick out of this sort of cinematic oddity, then you know just what you're in for and should view FIST OF FEAR, TOUCH OF DEATH in a state of giddy delight. If not, then chances are you'll like it about as much as a swift kick in the teeth.




SPECIAL FEATURES

    Restoration from the original 35mm camera negative
    A featurette of behind-the-camera takes on the film in brand new interviews with Fist of Fear, Touch of Death actors Fred Willaimson and Ron Van Clief, producer Terry Levene, director Matthew Mallinson, and scriptwriter Ron Harvey
    Original theatrical trailer
    Liner notes from Will Sloan and Justin Decloux, hosts of The Important Cinema Club podcast

Release Date: 3-31-2020
Runtime: 82 minutes
Genre: Action
Language: English
Rating: R
Color/BW: Color

FIST OF FEAR, TOUCH OF DEATH -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

THE WILD, WILD WORLD OF JAYNE MANSFIELD -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 7/8/20

 

The trailer describes it as "Mondo Mansfield", which is fitting since THE WILD, WILD WORLD OF JAYNE MANSFIELD (Severin Films, 1968) plays just like one of those old "mondo" mockumentaries, but in this case narrated by and presided over by the curvaceous Miss M herself.

Fans of both the strikingly oddball "mondo" film genre and of the well-endowed actress herself should be enthralled by this cinematic grab bag consisting of footage of Jayne traveling the world mixed with comedic sexual vignettes and other naughty material that originally garnered it an "X" rating.

Such fans won't be put off, as will many other viewers, by the overwhelming cheesiness of the entire affair, as Jayne sashays through the streets of Rome, Paris, New York, and Hollywood amidst throngs of fans, visiting famous tourist attractions by day and more forbidden haunts such as strip clubs, gay bars, drag contests, avenues of prostitution, and other titillating sites by night.

All the while we're treated to her running commentary ("Even midgets and dwarves need sex", "In America, a girl with a beautiful bust line can make her fortune. Well, look at me! I'm proof of that", "The boys looked more feminine than the girls!") which, in fact, was dubbed post-production by a voice actress. 

This is augmented by stills and footage from Jayne's films such as 1960's "The Loves of Hercules" (where she met future husband Mickey Hargitay), "Promises..... Promises!" (1963), "Primitive Love" (1964), and one of her most famous film appearances in "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" (1957). We also get to see her nude layout in Playboy.

Helping the film earn its "X" rating are some scenes of nudity on beaches and in burlesque houses as well as some topless shots of Jayne as she contemplates joining some nudists but is too shy to go "all the way." There's also much risque' humor as well as the various other adult themes which were quite strong stuff at the time.

While the film has the same jauntily silly attitude and wince-inducing comedy as other such titillating travelogues, as well as the same home-movie production values, its final ten minutes of so take a jarring turn into true exploitation territory with graphic photos and descriptions of Jayne Mansfield's tragic death in an auto accident during production.

Grainy news photos of her horribly smashed car and lifeless body lying covered on the side of the road remain as shocking as ever, and even the small dog that Jayne clutches so fondly during the entire film is seen lying dead amidst the debris.

Here, Jayne's "wild, wild world" suddenly morphs into a stridently-narrated wallow in total sleaze as one can sense the filmmakers realizing what an exploitation gold mine their work-in-progress had suddenly become upon the death of their star.

It culminates in maudlin footage of her husband Mickey Hargitay and their two sons mourning her loss at their once-happy mansion with its heart-shaped swimming pool inscribed by Mickey with the words "I Love Jayne."

The Blu-ray from Severin Films is scanned from Something Weird's rare 35mm archival print and retains that wonderful grindhouse look--specks, scratches, faded color, and so on--which fill me with such an old-movie lover's delight. The bonus menu contains the SD video master version of the film as well, with its richer color scenes.

Also included is the featurette "The Devil and Jayne" which covers her surprising and, for me anyway, downright shocking connection to satanist Anton LaVey and all that very unhealthy and off-putting stuff. There's also a trailer and a bonus full-length "mondo"-style documentary, "Wild, Weird, Wonderful Italians", which is much more of a true-to-life travelogue than the main feature.

As with most films of its ilk, THE WILD, WILD WORLD OF JAYNE MANSFIELD will be like garlic to a vampire for many viewers less receptive to the sleazy, the shamelessly exploitative, and the wretchedly cheap.  But for the recklessly adventuresome grunge-movie gourmet, it will be like garlic on a big, scrumptious Italian pizza with everything on it.

THE WILD, WILD WORLD OF JAYNE MANSFIELD -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

MONDO FREUDO/ MONDO BIZARRO -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 1/29/19
 

MONDO BIZARRO (1966)

In 1962, exploitation filmmakers had a massive surprise hit with the shock-u-mentary MONDO CANE (Italian for "Dog's World"), a showcase for the twisted,  bizarre, and exotic things that go on in the world.  Audiences didn't know or care that the actual footage was heavily augmented with obviously staged material, and it was such a success that it even scored an Oscar for Best Song ("More").

As you might guess, this was followed by scores of imitations including 1966's MONDO BIZARRO (Severin Films). Producers Bob Cresse and Lee Frost spared every expense to put together a mixed bag of shocking sex and violence vignettes from around the world, or rather from in and around the Hollywood area with lots of stock footage of foreign countries to give things a faux international flavor.

The result is an interesting look at what audiences found shocking in 1966 and what exploitation filmmakers were allowed to get away with in terms of sex, violence, and forbidden content.

We the audience are invited to view it all as vicarious voyeurs, sometimes by means of a supposed super-powered telescopic lens (with infra-red capabilities for night shooting) that brings us up close to such forbidden nocturnal activities as a voodoo ritual in the Bahamas and half-naked lovers cavorting on a dark beach somewhere in California.

The most authentic footage is found in a sequence about spring break on the California coast, in which we see real-life mid-sixties teens blowing into town by the hundreds to engage in bacchanalian revelries.

There's also a lengthy bit which simply invites us to gaze at bikini-clad babes sunbathing on a public beach, and a profile of a man who lies on a bed of nails and pushes long needles through his cheeks (this part is disturbingly real). This is followed by a man who eats glass, although I'm betting this guy's not the real deal.

MONDO BIZARRO gets going when it starts focusing on sex, beginning with the relatively innocuous with a day in the bustling Frederick's of Hollywood mail order room (complete with models showing off their latest fashions for us) and night footage of various prostitutes, male and female, plying their wares on Hollywood Boulevard. There's also a few scenes of nude body painting, art classes with a nude model, and a beatnik photog snapping a topless dancing girl.

More endearing fakery comes with a naive guy's first visit to a massage parlor (supposedly in the Far East), which we witness through a one-way mirror. Already this technique has been used in the film's opening as supposedly unsuspecting women are filmed, again through one-way glass, stripping off in a dressing room with their eyes crudely obscured for anonymity.

The really dark side of sex comes into play with a trip to "Berlin" where leering audience members relive the glories of the Third Reich by gleefully watching a play about a Jewish girl who is kidnapped, stripped naked, and whipped as Hitler's recorded voice blares out. 

The film ends with a lengthy slave auction in which California's Bronson Canyon doubles as the Middle East and our high-tech telescopic lens captures wealthy sheiks bidding on hapless, naked slave girls who are brought out one at a time from their cages on the back of a truck (their lower regions crudely obscured to avoid obscenity charges). 

Cresse's sober voiceover observations ("To a maggot, the cadaver is infinity") add extra camp-humor icing to the cake.  While much of this sounds horrifically unsuitable for decent folk to watch (though it must've been irresistibly titillating to audiences at the time), the fact that it's all so wonderfully fake is what now gives MONDO BIZARRO its substantial entertainment value.


MONDO FREUDO (1966)

The second shock-doc on Severin's double-feature Blu-ray disc is the follow-up, MONDO FREUDO (also from 1966), which is more of the same but with even greater emphasis on the dark side of sex.

As with MONDO BIZARRO, the most true-to-life stuff involves real-life teenagers out for a good time.  Here, they're shown riding around up and down Hollywood Boulevard at night (for no apparent reason other than it's a fun thing to do) and hanging out in Watusi clubs.

The film then wastes little time steering us into a strip club where we get to watch a dancer named "Baby Bubbles" do her thing. While the club looks suspiciously like the same soundstage where almost every other such scene in these two "Mondo" films takes place, the dancer herself is a knockout (we'll see her again).

The same can't be said for all of the supposed prostitutes on display at other clubs (this time in both Tijuana and jolly old England, we're told), who pose as dancers while actually advertising themselves to potential clients. 

We learn that as long as they're wearing outfits that can be purchased in a store, they qualify as "models" and can therefore legally display their naughty bits for an audience. Makes sense, I guess!

More slave auctions take place, this time in Mexico, with more nudity and more of that odd film-scratching effect to obscure the more forbidden zones.  Then, a lengthy visit to a black mass ritual takes up much of the film's latter half, with a woman who appears to be "Baby Bubbles" herself writhing vigorously in black undies (once again, she's a total knockout) before helping to initiate another woman into the cult during a blood ceremony. 

My enjoyment of both documentaries was greatly increased upon second viewing thanks to the commentary tracks by Johnny Legend and Eric Caidin, whose humorous remarks on the onscreen action and first-hand stories about the times and places involved are as entertaining as the films themselves.  Also of much interest is an informative featurette, "The Cadaver Is Infinity: Bob Cresse, Lee Frost, and the Birth of American Mondo", featuring Chris Poggiali. 

Much of the lurid material in MONDO FREUDO/MONDO BIZARRO seems relatively tame these days, but it's interesting to see what was once considered so shockingly taboo to movie audiences.  (Admittedly, some of it still is, and viewer discretion is advised.)  But whether you're shocked, titillated, or simply moved to laughter, chances are you'll have a mondo good time watching.


Buy it from Severin Films

Special Features:
4K Scans From Original "Something Weird" Vault Negatives
Audio Commentary with Johnny Legend and Eric Caidin
The Cadaver Is Infinity: Bob Cresse, Lee Frost and the Birth of American Mondo – Interview With Chris Poggiali
Mondo Bizarro Trailer
Mondo Freudo Trailer
English Subtitles

MONDO FREUDO/ MONDO BIZARRO -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

MONDO BALORDO -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

It's the same old "mondo" mockumentary that we've seen numerous times before, and indeed these things seem as though they're churned out like sausage and packaged with new labels, but the difference with MONDO BALORDO, aka "A Fool's World" (Severin Films, 1964), is that it's narrated by none other than venerable Boris Karloff in his unmistakably dulcet tones.

This is sorta the flipside of Bela Lugosi's dour commentary on the human race in Ed Wood's GLEN OR GLENDA? "People! All going somewhere!" Bela grumbled with a scowl in that oddball classic, while Boris, in contrast, is at his most jovial here while narrating his way through the incredibly verbose script he's been handed--possibly more words than the actor ever uttered in a single movie--and seems to be rather amused by its non-stop, unabashed ridiculousness.

As always, naughty sex tales, trivia, legends, and anecdotes abound, whether joking vignettes staged for the film or actual documentary footage of strange social and sexual customs from around the world.

A Miss America contest which appears to have been held on an Italian soundstage gives way to Bedouin prostitutes selling their wares in desert tents or tribal natives engaging in unusual courting and marriage rituals.

The editing and continuity are also characteristically random. Just when we've settled into watching an attractive woman stripping for some Asian businessmen, a jarring edit places us in the wilds of Africa where a lion is savagely killing and feasting upon a zebra. Later we witness an actual exorcism in India which involves a chicken (you don't want to know how).

Homosexuality is again one of the film's major taboos to explore, as we're once again invited to marvel at how feminine the transvestites look as they dance with regularly-garbed gay men or enjoy the sight of lebians cavorting together in the sanctity of underground nightclubs.

Those who enjoy watching dwarves go about their daily lives are also indulged as we observe a diminutive hooker servicing her customer in the backseat of an abandoned car parked in an alley.

Elsewhere a man barely a meter tall in a crazy zoot suit shows off some incredible acrobatic dance moves in front of a hot rock and roll band. This guy is probably my favorite part of the whole film, partly because he's just so entertaining and partly because he helped rouse me out of the drowsy stupor that much of the rest of MONDO BALORDO was lulling me into.

Let's face it--despite its cornucopia of utter strangeness and some truly bizarre sights, much of this is a rather boring and even confusing experience. It's as though dozens of film clips of various unrelated sex jokes, titillating (for 60s standards) footage both real and staged, and standard travelogue stuff from several exotic locations around the world were swept up off the cutting room floor, thrown into a blender, pasted together, and made more palatable by having our beloved Boris bless it all with his warmly inviting vocal inflections.

The Blu-ray from Severin Films is scanned in 4K from the original negative which is in decent shape for an old and obscure film rarity of this type. (Any inherent imperfections in picture quality only add to its nostalgic appeal for me.) Anamorphic widescreen 1.66:1. Audio is English mono, with English subtitles.

Extras consist of a trailer and an added feature, THE ORIENTALS (1960), a genuine travelogue of various far Eastern locations that's told through the eyes of six women and which was scanned from a 35mm print in the Something Weird archives.

As per my usual disclaimer, many viewers will have absolutely no desire to subject themselves to such a strange mash-up of the banal and the bizarre as MONDO BALORDO--while on the other hand, there are those who will hungrily inhale this weirdly intoxicating sleazefest just like the hopeless drug addicts we see awaiting their daily fix of brain-rotting bliss.


Buy it from Severin Films

MONDO BALORDO -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

70s Grindhouse Homage "MOMO: THE MISSOURI MONSTER" Arrives September 20th on DVD and VOD from Small Town Monsters

Small Town Monsters Unleashes
"MOMO: The Missouri Monster" 

DVD and VOD Release Announced for September 20th

Narrative Horror/Documentary Hybrid
   
Wadsworth, OH -- Small Town Monsters has announced the September 20th DVD and VOD release of Seth Breedlove's docudrama MOMO: The Missouri Monster.  The latest title to crawl forth from the production powerhouse behind last year's best-selling documentary On the Trail of Bigfoot, MOMO: The Missouri Monster seeks to tell the true, and truly strange story of the Missouri Monster.

The hair-covered, three-toed monstrosity was said to have prowled the forests of Star Hill, near Louisiana, Missouri during the summer of 1972 where it was spotted by terrified citizens for weeks.  The film will be available nationwide on DVD, as well as Vimeo OnDemand, Amazon Instant Video, and VIDI Space.

The case gained national media attention during the '70s and remains one of the largest tourist draws for the tiny town on the banks of the Mississippi River. The latest release from Small Town Monsters and director Seth Breedlove, MOMO: The Missouri Monster is told in both narrative and documentary form. The narrative sections appear as a lost b-movie from the 1970s, inspired by Breedlove's lifelong fascination with grindhouse movies and creature features. The horror film depicts the widely accepted details of the MOMO legend and is eventually contradicted and corrected by the actual survivors who lived through the events. 

Breedlove describes MOMO: The Missouri Monster as "Rashomon meets Creature from Black Lake or The Legend of Boggy Creek". The film stars Adam Duggan and Sara Heddleston, as well as Animal Planet's Cliff Barackman and James "Bobo" Fay with special appearances by Janet Jay and Elizabeth Saint (Ghosts of Shepherdstown). 

Ahead of the national video release, a midnight premiere is scheduled at the Kentucky Theater in Lexington, Kentucky on Friday, September 6th with cast and crew in attendance. The premiere will coincide with Cryptid-Con, a cryptozoology and paranormal convention celebrating its third year and featuring a number of renowned authors, television personalities, and speakers. 

On Friday, September 13th, the Canton Palace Theatre in Canton, OH will play host to the Ohio Premiere of MOMO with cast and crew in attendance. Finally, on September 20th, as MOMO hits audiences nationwide, the Missouri Monster will storm the State Theater in Point Pleasant, WV as part of the kickoff for the annual Mothman Festival.

The year was 1972 and the place was a tiny, quaint, riverfront town called Louisiana, Missouri. On a warm summer evening, two local kids saw a creature in their own backyard holding a dead dog. Before you could say the word "Bigfoot", local media and police officials had pounced on the story.

Overnight Louisiana became "monster central" with creature seekers and monster hunters combing the woods to look for "the thing" that the newspapers had dubbed "MOMO". One particular family was at the center of this whirlwind of activity and as the Missouri Monster sightings began to increase, so did the negative impact on the Harrisons.

In 1975, a film crew set out to tell an over-the-top, filmic version of the MOMO sightings. Due to one reason or another, this should-have-been-cult-classic was never released. Until now.


MOMO: THE MISSOURI MONSTER - Trailer #2:



Buy MOMO: The Missouri Monster

The DVD release of MOMO: The Missouri Monster (SRP $14.99) will exclusively include a 51 minute behind-the-scenes featurette.

 MOMO: The Missouri Monster: USA / 81 min / English

70s Grindhouse Homage "MOMO: THE MISSOURI MONSTER" Arrives September 20th on DVD and VOD from Small Town Monsters

Small Town Monsters Debuts First Trailer For 70s Grindhouse Homage "MOMO: THE MISSOURI MONSTER" -- See It HERE!

Small Town Monsters Unveils First Look at

"MOMO: THE MISSOURI MONSTER"

First Trailer and Stills Released for Narrative Horror/Documentary Hybrid
Docudrama Set to Premiere This Fall
   
Wadsworth, OH -- Small Town Monsters has released the first look at their new docudrama MOMO: The Missouri Monster.  The newest creature feature from Small Town Media founder and director Seth Breedlove, MOMO: The Missouri Monster seeks to tell the true, and truly strange story of the Missouri Monster.

The hair-covered, three-toed monstrosity was said to have prowled the forests of Star Hill, near Louisiana, Missouri during the summer of 1972 where it was spotted by terrified citizens for weeks.

The case gained national media attention during the '70s and remains one of the largest tourist draws for the tiny town on the banks of the Mississippi River. The first trailer for the film lands today and hints at the storytelling devices employed, as well as some of the fascinating interviews and locations.  Breedlove describes MOMO: The Missouri Monster as "Rashomon meets Creature from Black Lake or The Legend of Boggy Creek".

WATCH THE TRAILER

 

The film stars Adam Duggan and Sara Heddleston, as well as Animal Planet's Cliff Barackman and James "Bobo" Fay with special appearances by Janet Jay and Elizabeth Saint (Ghosts of Shepherdstown).  A grindhouse-style poster was created by artist Adrienne Breedlove.

The latest release from Small Town Monsters and director Seth Breedlove, MOMO: The Missouri Monster is told in both narrative and documentary form. The narrative sections appear as a lost b-movie from the 1970s, inspired by Breedlove's lifelong fascination with grindhouse movies and creature features. The horror film depicts the widely accepted details of the MOMO legend and is eventually contradicted and corrected by the actual survivors who lived through the events.

The latest title to crawl forth from the production powerhouse behind last year's best-selling documentary On the Trail of Bigfoot, MOMO: The Missouri Monster is set for a fall release. A midnight premiere is scheduled at the Kentucky Theater in Lexington, Kentucky on Friday, September 6th with cast and crew in attendance.

The premiere will coincide with Cryptid-Con, a cryptozoology and paranormal convention celebrating its third year and featuring a number of renowned authors, television personalities, and speakers.

Small Town Monsters Debuts First Trailer For 70s Grindhouse Homage "MOMO: THE MISSOURI MONSTER" -- See It HERE!

Serial Killer, Neo Noir Horror "Doc" STRAWBERRY FLAVORED PLASTIC Arrives in North America--DVD/VOD Release (5/7)

BREAKING GLASS CHRONICLES A SERIAL KILLER IN STRAWBERRY FLAVORED PLASTIC

Philadelphia, PA, March 4, 2019--Breaking Glass Pictures has acquired North American rights to gripping, neo-noir horror-doc STRAWBERRY FLAVORED PLASTIC. Breaking Glass acquired rights to the film in February in a deal negotiated between Breaking Glass CEO Rich Wolff and Cody Lyons Co-Founder of The Octoberists. The film will arrive on DVD & VOD on May 7, 2019.

Described as “disquieting, discomforting, scary, and disturbing” (Rue Morgue) that “works remarkably well as an often-chilling character study” (The Hollywood Reporter), and praised as “a must-see for fans of found footage and serial killer studies” (Dread Central), STRAWBERRY FLAVORED PLASTIC stars Aidan Bristow, Nicholas Urda, and Andres Montejo.

“Writer director Colin Bemis has crafted a superb drama that fits perfectly into the current craze of the “charming serial killer”, said Lyons. “We couldn’t be more pleased with Breaking Glass and look forward to working together in the future.”

When Errol and Ellis, two aspiring documentarians embarking on their first feature, put out a feeler to their local community for individuals with interesting stories. They hear back from and settle on the tale of Noel, a man who has just been released from prison after a nine-year incarceration for a crime of passion. After several weeks of shooting, they inadvertently discover that Noel’s story is fabricated: he has never been to prison.

They soon find out that he is an at-large and very active serial killer who has never been apprehended by authorities. Now too entangled and implicit in Noel’s horrific crimes, the duo are stuck between deciding on the right thing to do and possibly making the most sensationalized and infamous documentary ever made. They make their decision: to keep filming, and events spin increasingly and wildly out of control…

“Contemporary and chilling, Bemis’ take on the charming serial killer seems incredibly relevant and horrific” said Richard Ross, Co-President of Breaking Glass. “Aidan Bristow, in a remarkable performance, exhibits a perfect blend of cunning vulnerability and ice-cold insanity.”

STRAWBERRY FLAVORED PLASTIC
Genre: Horror, Crime
Running Time: 107 min.
Rating: NR
Language: English
UPC: 855184007853

Cast:
Aidan Bristow
Nicholas Urda
Andres Montejo
Bianca Soto
Lourdes Severny
Raelynn Zofia Stueber
Erica Duke Forsyth
Steve Boghossian
Marisa Lowe

Directed by: Colin Bemis
Written by: Colin Bemis
Produced by: Colin Bemis
Executive Produced by: T.M. Bemis, Rob Casasanta, Don Fleming, Jeff Miller,
Donald Panos, Tracy Panos
Associate Produced by: Carolyn Bevacqua, Angela Blum, Shannon Brady, Delilah Campos, Bill D’Apice, Joie Estrella, Timothy Feeney, Megan Foley, Ann Gaulocher, Christopher Gibbons, Patrick Moore, Jason Pfister, Charley Raiff, Joe Rutz, Robert Squeri, Daniel Tobin

Music Composed by: Matt Barile
Cinematography by: Yoni Shrira
Edited by: Steve Boghossian, Yoni Shrira
Production Company: Neon Briefcase

Serial Killer, Neo Noir Horror "Doc" STRAWBERRY FLAVORED PLASTIC Arrives in North America--DVD/VOD Release (5/7)