Movie Review: Chasers

Chasers 

Morgan Creek Productions, USA, 1994.

Sailor Eddie Devane (William McNamara) has a last day in the service of U.S. Navy. Couple of shady deals should be still completed, selling a cargo of army pants and covering the tracks together with partner-in-crime Howard (Crispin Glover). He has already ordered a Porsche from Salesman Stig (Dean Stockwell). However Eddie gets a last duty to escort a prisoner to court. There's no way to avoid the duty so he has to go on a mission with tough chief petty officer Rock Reilly (Tom Berenger) who already hates him.

Rock & Eddie

Due to technical error the prisoner they have to escort is a woman. Seductive Toni Johnson (Erika Eleniak) tries to escape on every possible occasion. Slowly the mismatched trio begins to develop fondness for each other. Nothing bonds better than little fist fighting and backstabbing.

Toni

Happily strolling on the countryside

Country music plays and quips fly. There is an amusing brief role from Gary Busey, he appears as pesky prison warden. This was the last feature film directed by Dennis Hopper, he appears here as pervy underwear salesman. Seymour Cassel appears as Master Chief Bogg.

Master Chief Bogg

Sergeant Banger

It is not very outstanding military comedy, with many ideas left half-way but has some fun scenes and is in some way entertaining. Berenger is pleasantly grumpy, Dwight Yoakam's songs and other country music are good and the story has a mild feel-good aftertaste. There is some nice southern country atmosphere with diners and roadhouses, 1970s-80s road comedies were perhaps the inspiration. There is some eye-candy for fans of William McNamara and Erika Eleniak, if you know what I mean. Still with the cast more fun could have been expected.

Rating: Average

Starring: Tom Berenger, William McNamara, Erika Eleniak, Crispin Glover, Matthew Glave, Grand L. Bush, Dean Stockwell, Bitty Schram, Gary Busey, Seymour Cassel, Frederic Forrest, Marilu Henner, Dennis Hopper, Scott Marlowe, Jim Grimshaw, Mick McGovern, Charles Page, Richard Pelzman, Laura Cathey, Jim Bath, Michael Flippo, Rick Warner, Rob Priester, Gene Dann, Jon Rodgers, Michael Martin, Victoria Duffy, Michael O'Brien, Elizabeth Hawkins, Tony Donno, Wallace Wilkinson, Robert Pentz, Jackson 'Rock' Pinckney, Jimmie Lee Sessoms, Melissa Wyler, Ted Detwiler, Bob Dorough, John Christopher Stuart, Toni Prima, David E. Harshbarger, Matthew Sullivan, Justin Thaler
Director: Dennis Hopper 

Movie Review: Wyrmwood

Wyrmwood a.k.a Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead
Screen Australia, Roache-Turner Brothers, Guerilla Films, Australia, 2014.

Aboriginal Benny (Leon Burchill) and his brothers (Damion Hunter, Alfred Coolwell) went to forest for a little hunting. The other brother turned into a zombie and the other one died. Handyman Barry's (Jay Callagher) family became victims after zombies came in for a midnight snack. Barry's goth sister Brooke (Bianca Bradey) was filming artsy photos when rest of the crew became zombies. She is abducted by crazy Doctor (Berynn Schwerdt) who clearly enjoys his job too much.

Benny

Barry

On the road they meet some helpful people, most of whom quickly become zombie-food. Together with Mechanic Frank (Keith Agius) they build a vehicle that runs with unusual power source. Frank believes that the day of reckoning has come. Saving Barry's sister is what keeps the men going.

The Doctor is in

Frank

Common zombie

The debut film of the Roache-Turner brothers has energetic zombie-mayhem with Mad Max influences, makeshift armour and trucks from hell. The story shares similar twisted sense of humour as Peter Jackson's and Sam Raimi's early movies. In Australia they like beer but when you take beer from the freezer, watch for the zombie. He's chilling in there. It is not only amusing zombie-slaying as it has also some tragic and horrific turns as with the backstory of Barry shows. Brooke's character leaves a better impression than Milla Jovovich in the latest "Resident Evil" films. The script has couple of novel ideas such as using fumes emitted by zombies as fuel. Although the zombie genre is saturated, "Wyrmwood" is a fun ride and despite the low budget the production values are good. It became an instant cult classic and a sequel TV-series is on the production.

Rating: Good 

Starring: Jay Gallagher, Bianca Bradey, Leon Burchill, Keith Agius, Berynn Schwerdt, Luke McKenzie, Cain Thompson, Damian Dyke, Yure Covich, Catherine Terracini, Meganne West, Beth Aubrey, Sheridan Harbridge, Damion Hunter, Alfred Coolwell, Ellen Brooke Williams, Adam Penklis, Ellie Poussot, Brendan Byrne, Craig Bourke, John Michael Burdon, Aaron Collins, Clayton Galipo, Dane Hallett, Daniel Martin, Tom Matthews, Simon Mak Murrell, Melvin Okoronkwo, Justen Petch, Jesse Rowles, Adam Sanders, Deborah Joyce 

Director: Kiah Roache-Turner

Movie Review: Two-Lane Blacktop

Two-Lane Blacktop 

Michael Laughlin Enterprises, Universal Pictures, USA, 1971. 

The Driver (James Taylor) and The Mechanic (Dennis Wilson) are laconic and car-obsessed chaps who basically live in their car, black custom-built Chevy '55. Road racing is their way of life. The Girl (Laurie Bird) is a hippie trying to go to San Francisco so she joins them. Her presence results in a drama triangle. That doesn't last long though, as the guys are more interested in their car than her.

The Mechanic and The Driver

Chevy

The Girl

The guys challenge a man of tall tales, G.T.O (Warren Oates) to a road race. Winner gets the loser's car. As contrast to the old Chevy, G.T.O's Pontiac is modern muscle car. However the race doesn't have much importance. Sometimes they stop to repair the cars, hang around and chat. Sometimes G.T.O gives a lift to hitchhikers and tells untruthful stories about himself, being a former fighter pilot, movie director and whatever. However he is a burned-out adrenaline-junkie whose motor leaks. "What do we have, thirty-forty years?" reminds a delusional hitchhiker or a messenger of death.

G.T.O

The style is very minimalistic and existential. It has more in common with French New Wave films than with usual chase films. The cinematic time capsule preserves flashes of 1970s Americana, gas stations, race tracks and diners. Everyone is going somewhere and nowhere. Nothing much happens but there is nothing unnecessary. It has the same kind of rootlessness and disillusionment of post-Vietnam era U.S.A as in "Easy Rider" and "The Vanishing Point". The only place for freedom is on the road and even that does not matter. 

The scrolling yellow road line in the beginning looks like inspiration for the scenes in James Cameron's  "Terminator 2" and David Lynch's "Lost Highway."

Rating: Very good

Starring: James Taylor, Warren Oates, Laurie Bird, Dennis Wilson, David Drake, Richard Ruth, Rudy Wurlitzer, Jaclyn Hellman, Bill Keller, Harry Dean Stanton, Don Samuels, Charles Moore, Tom Green, W.H. Harrison, Alan Vint, Illa Ginnaven, George Mitchell, A.J. Solari, Katherine Squire, Melissa Hellman, Jay Wheatley, James Mitchum, Kreag Caffey, Tom Witenbarger, Glen Rogers, Tomas Moore, Big Willie Robinson III 

Director: Monte Hellman

Movie Review: Diary of the Dead

Diary of the Dead
Artfire Films, Romero-Grunwald Productions, USA, 2007.

Film students go to forest to film a horror movie when media starts to broadcast news about dead coming back to life. Director-wannabe Jason (Joshua Close) films the collapse of the society with his camera. Joshua, his girlfriend Debra (Michelle Morgan) and a bickering group of students hit the road in a camper van. There is also their teacher, drunk Professor Maxwell (Scott Wentworth).

Debra

Tracy (Amy Lalonde) and Gordo (Chris Violette)

Jason

The influence of mass media has changed as everybody can make films nowadays with their own point of view. Romero's social criticism is targeted this time on overconfidence on technology and he moralizes about everybody willing to film awful accidents. And the people who are just filming when they should be helping their friends to fight zombies. Maybe film making is the real zombie virus as anybody who grabs a camera must keep filming even as they may die doing that. The heavy-handed message is repeated over and over again so it gets old and  tiresome fast. It is like old man shaking his fist and raging: "In my youth there were only three TV-channels! Who needs Youtube!" And then a guy hits himself in the head with a scythe. It is hard to take anything seriously after that. It gets too cynical and nihilistic to be a working dark comedy or fun zombie culling movie either. Only near the end it had some classic Romero creepiness. It is not one of Romero's brightest moments although I have heard that the sequel "Survival of the Dead" is worse.

Professor Maxwell

Tony (Shawn Roberts)

Also the Amish guy should have been around longer. Maybe he could have said something witty about modern technology.

Samuel the Amish Farmer (R.D. Reid)

"Orphan Black" star Tatiana Maslany has a small role. Quentin Tarantino, Stephen King and many other famous people can be heard as voices in radio broadcasts.

Rating: Average 

Starring: Michelle Morgan, Joshua Close, Shawn Roberts, Amy Lalonde, Joe Dinicol, Scott Wentworth, Philip Riccio, Chris Violette, Tatiana Maslany, Todd Schroeder, Daniel Kash, Laura de Carteret, Martin Roach, Megan Park, George Buza, Tino Monte, Matt Birman, Greg Nicotero, Donna Croce, Nick Alachiotis, R.D. Reid, Scott Gibson, Jamie Bloch, Kyle Glencross, Boyd Banks, Janet Lo, Jack Birman, Trish Adams, Alan Van Sprang, Ron Payne, Shelley Cook, James Binkley, Anthony Cancelliere, Wes Craven (voice), Alexandria DeFabiis, Guillermo del Toro (voice), Ara Katz, Stephen King (voice), Mani Nasry, Simon Pegg (voice), George A. Romero, Tom Savini (voice), Quentin Tarantino (voice) 

Director: George A. Romero

Movie Review: Gangsters, Guns and Zombies

Gangsters, Guns and Zombies
LMV Productions, UK, 2012.

A bank robbery goes all "Reservoir Dogs." Luckily for the robbers the cops have more important problems as the zombie apocalypse has just started. The main narrator Q (Vincent Jerome) wonders what he's gotten into. Gangster boss Tony (Huggy Leaver), loose gun Crazy Steve (Fabrizio Santino), strong and benevolent Muscles (Charlie Rawes), bank robbery middle manager Pat (Frank Rizzo) and injured Danny (Simon Mathews) get away in the chaos that ensues. The dumb robbers go to the countryside where it should be safer but it is not though. 

Tony

Muscles, Pat, Crazy Steve and Q

Is it Insane Clown Posse?

After some adventures the survivors meet an angry granny (Jennie Lathan) and her pretty granddaughter Cassie (Cassandra Orhan). They decide to leave Britain as it is not safe anymore. So just basic plot you could see in a dozens of other zombie films.

Granny

Q and Cassie

Official PSA

Tongue-in-cheek film has shoestring budget and takes influences from "Lock, Stock and Two Barrels" and other Guy Ritchie's gangster films. Why not also from Peter Jackson's early horror comedies although this doesn't go as gory or crazy as "Bad Taste." If it only had a larger budget...

In the IMDB trivia it is said that the budget was £1 200. I think it may have been a bit more (but not much) unless everyone worked for free, as already the camera costs and the gasoline costs were probably larger.

What is fun that there are some groups of themed zombies: medieval larpers, soccer zombies, and clowns. Crazy Steve (Fabrizio Santino) steals the show in the first half and granny (Jennie Lathan) with a gun in the second half. What is not fun is that most of the time the guys are just driving around and the second half just drags. The zombie makeup is just blood stains on the face and the effects use bad CGI blood. The zombies are amateurs but seem to have fun.

"Cockneys vs Zombies" was built with similar elements and it was a fun film. "Gangsters, Guns and Zombies" is not as good but could be worse. For a low budget zombie film it has a decent camerawork compared to many handheld shaky cam horror films. The characters were a notch more interesting than usually, and the British humour helped to make them likable. This was not so bad considering that there are many worse indie horror films. This is not everyone's cup of tea but I found the dumb humour quite entertaining.

Rating: Good (for a ultra low budget zombie film) / Bad (as a regular film)

Starring: Vincent Jerome, Huggy Leaver, Fabrizio Santino, Cassandra Orhan, Frank Rizzo, Charlie Rawes, Jennie Lathan, Simon Mathews, Dave Skirbeck Bedford, Gurpreet Bedi, Dean Boor, Lee Hardy, Sharon Lawrence, Chris Manning-Perry, Doug McCarthy, Jessica McManigan, Calum McNab, Josh Myers, Paul Neenoo, Andy Rawlings, Simon Woodgate
Director: Matt Mitchell

Movie Review: Love and a .45

Love and a .45 

Trimark Pictures, USA, 1994.

Friendly outlaw Watty Watts (Gil Bellows) and his sexy girlfriend Starlene Cheatham (Renée Zellweger) make a living by robbing convenience stores. Everything they need in the life is love and a .45. Watty has a rule of never making a robbery with a loaded gun so no one can get hurt. He has debts to mobsters so he has to make a robbery with his psychotic junkie friend Billy (Rory Cochrane). That's a bad idea as Billy snaps and shoots the cashier girl. 

Watty Watts

Starlene Cheatham

Billy Mack Black

Chased by Billy, crazy gangsters and dirty cops Watty and Starlene have to flee. Things get worse and soon the bodies start to pile up when meth-head mobsters Dinosaur Bob (Jeffrey Combs)  and Creepy Cody (Jace Alexander) join the chase. Due the true crime TV coverage Watty and Starlene become local celebrities.

Dinosaur Bob  and Creepy Cody

Made in the wake of ultraviolent crime films "Wild at Heart" "Reservoir Dogs" and "True Romance" this is not bad lower budget example of the genre. With good characters and fun dialogue it is one of the better Tarantino imitations. It is not very well known film but has become a kind of cult classic and not only because of Renée Zellweger's role as hottie Texas outlaw. This was one of Renée Zellweger's bigger roles before becoming an actor in  romantic comedies and drama movies so it is quite different film to see her in. Rockabilly and psychobilly filled soundtrack is good. The story is pleasantly sleazy white trash crime story with dark humour and entertaining dialogue. The characters are crazy and over the top. Billy is wild as insane and unpredictable criminal, a perfect nutcase. Road movie crime film veteran Peter Fonda appears as Starlenes crippled hippie dad Vergil and 'Re-animator' Jeffrey Combs as mob enforcer Dinosaur Bob who sticks to his old habits and still likes to play with needles.

Peter Fonda as Vergil Cheatham

Rating: Good

Starring: Gil Bellows, Renée Zellweger, Rory Cochrane, Jeffrey Combs, Jace Alexander, Ann Wedgeworth, Peter Fonda, Tammy Le Blanc, Wiley Wiggins, Jack Nance, Charlotte Ross, Michael Bowen, Scott Roland, Todd Conner, Richard Rothenberg, Stopher Finley, Brad Leland, Augustin Solis, Kevin Berve, Reverend Horton Heat, Darin Scott, C.M. Talkington 

Director: C.M. Talkington

Movie Review: Race with the Devil

Race with the Devil

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Saber-Maslansky Productions, USA, 1975.

Motorcycle salesman Frank (Warren Oates) goes to campervan/biking vacation with motorist Roger (Peter Fonda) and their wives Alice (Loretta Swit) and Kelly (Lara Parker). Apparently they haven't seen "Texas Chainsaw massacre", they should know to avoid American back countries. There are always inbred cannibals, monsters and stuff! Soon the nice vacation takes a nasty turn when a group of Satan worshippers begins to sacrifice humans on the nearby hill.

Roger and Frank

Kelly and Alice

Satanic ritual

The Sheriff (R.G. Armstrong) seems amused. It must be those damn hippies again having a drunken orgy again! Meanwhile the ladies loan some reference books for deciphering the ominous message that was left in the campervan. The freakish local residents begin to get on their nerves. Then the cultists start playing psychological warfare on them. Finally they have to drive like crazy to save their lives.

The Sheriff

Ominous message

Race With the Devil!

This is an weird mixture of car chase action movie, horror thriller and motorhome invasion- movie. Kind of fusion of "Wicker Man" and "Mad Max." It offers some good thrills and scares. Of course the story is quite silly with whole towns supporting the evil cult. Possibly it felt more believable in the seventies after the Manson murders and Jonestown cult mass suicide three years later in 1978. Also the side plots are left hanging as this is clearly horror flick meant to be watched drive-in theatres. Still watched in the right mood it has good cast, good tension and solid nightmarish plot development.

Knock knock! Who's there? Crazy cultist!

As a trivia Tom Hanks is watching this movie in "The 'Burbs."

Rating: Good

Starring: Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Loretta Swit, Lara Parker, R.G. Armstrong, Clay Tanner, Carol Blodgett, Phil Hoover, Ricci Ware, Paul A. Partain, James N. Harrell, Karen Miller, Arkey Blue, Jack Starrett, Wes Bishop, Joyce King, Paul Maslansky, Dan Hewitt Owens, Tommy Splittgerber
Director: Jack Starrett