Reviews from the Future

Thanks Future will give the Lake fiasco a miss

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No problemo PW, Fido is a charming little film, and at the risk of sounding anti-British I liked it a lot more than Shaun of the Dead.

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That's not anti-British UF. I am British and I prefer many, many things to watching Shaun Of The Dead, but the one I enjoy most, is not watching Shaun Of The Dead.

Same here. I loved Fido and (sorry) absolutely hated Shaun of the Dead. Well, maybe "hated" is a bit too strong of a word, but I didn't find it funny or interesting at all. :/

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My Movie Review Thread | My Top 100

I feel the exact opposite about both these movies

Ms.45 aka Angel of Vengeance (Abel Ferrarra 1981) +
I'd only ever seen the heavily cut (by a massive 1 minute and 42 seconds) UK version of this movie entitled Angel Of Vengeance. US prints run a little longer on dvd but are still nevertheless slightly cut. The only complete version of the film is the French dvd release entitled L'ange De La Vengeance; naturally it's become highly sought after and regularly exchanges hands for silly money on the internet. Recently I was lucky enough to get my hands on a dvd-r copy of the French release allowing me to finally see this cult gem as Ferrarra originally intended.

The story is about Thana (the late* Zoë Lund billed as Zoë Tamerlis here) an incredibly beautiful mute girl who works as a seamstress for a successful New York fashion designer. On her way home from work one evening Thana is dragged into an alleyway and raped by an opportunistic masked attacker. Deeply traumatized she stumbles back to her apartment, only to be met with an intruder there, who at gunpoint, rapes her for a second time. Desensitized by such violent misfortune she fights back, managing to bludgeon the man to death with a paper weight. Taking his pistol, a disturbed Thana begins a one woman crime-wave systematically murdering would be rapists, pimps, and ultimately any man who even looks in her direction.

This is quite possibly the best 'rape-revenge' exploitation flick I've ever seen; it easily rises above such depraved efforts as Wes Craven's The Last House On The Left, and Meir Zarchi's 1978 crapfest I Spit On Your Grave (which granted wouldn't be very hard). I'm actually reminded more of Roman Polanski's classic 1965 horror Repulsion when I watch this. There are indeed huge similarities between Deneuve's near mute, prudish, emotionally detached Carole, and Lund's vulnerable, shy mute Thana; It's merely their separate descents into madness that differ.

Much of the success of this film lies in Ferrarra's decision to make his protagonist a mute which is inspired rather than compensation for limited acting ability. Lund is sensational as Thana with her incredible expressive features perfectly conveying terror, despair, resignation, and ultimately an unhinged ruthless disregard for human (correction, male) life. The rape sequences whilst never pleasant are also remarkably restrained for this type of fare, with Ferrarra nearly always keeping the camera fixed on Lund's amazing facial expressions. As a result her transformation from timid beauty to insane femme fatale always feels convincing, even if the setup is a little contrived. Ultimately you care a great deal about Thana, not just because of her misfortune and Lund's beauty, but because Ferrarra's savvy direction effectively puts you in her shoes.

Ms. 45 may be basic and somewhat shallow with a cynical exploitative premise, but it's also a tightly scripted, fast paced, entertaining thriller. There's certainly plenty of satisfaction to be had from seeing Thana casually dispatch misogynistic scumbags who completely deserve it (and a few that don't). Undoubtedly though what makes Ms.45 so memorable is the high degree of style with which she does it. Recommended.

* Zoë Lund, a firm advocate of herion use sadly passed away in 1999 from drug-related heart failure.

Yes! Ms. 45! A classic film, for sure. That scene in the nun outfit is AWESOME. Actually, I need to see this again...adding to Netflix now...

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Nice, Ferrarra (along with both Bavas) is one of the filmmakers i need to catch up on. Are the two cuts massively different viewings?

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Hi Pyro,

You can see what's cut here and here

To answer your question though, I'd say the cuts do effect the film slightly yes. Seeing the full horror of what Thana endures at the hands of her attackers allows for much greater empathy as to what motivates her to kill and ultimately go insane. The scene in which she dismembers a body in her bathroom (which is tastefully shot) is also integral to the plot in that it starkly contrasts the once timid Thana as victim, with the transformed ruthless Thana as perpetrator. It's a great scene to me because it's such a depraved far cry from her shy innocence at the outset of the film. I'm sorry I know there's probably a much more intellectual way of putting it, but, well, I'm pretty stupid so that's the best I can do

Great review UF. Ms.45 is such a good film. Have you ever seen this?



If so, what did you think?

thanks,

I'm afraid I haven't, but from what I've read it sounds like the cover art is extremely deceptive. The presence of Milla Jovovich is usually a bad sign too, as most of the stuff she's been in is rubbish. Sorry to sound so negative but it looks like one I should avoid. Is it any good?

The Fifth Element was not rubbish, though... far from it!

Well I did say most, not all


"UF's right most of my films are rubbish"

Don't know, I haven't seen it either and, from the sounds of it, for the same reasons you have. I was getting excited about it when it was in production although, like you, I considered Jovovich's presence a minus, but the early reviews made me wary and, even when I see it really cheap, I've still yet to bother. Maybe one day I will.

Going back to Jovovich though, for me she's like Samuel L. Jackson and Kate Beckinsale, it has nothing to do with how good or bad she is, she usually picks bad films to be in and, unlike you guys, I do consider The Fifth Element a bad film. I think The Claim was the last good film I saw her in, though I quite liked Resident Evil: Apocolypse. More than the first one anyway.

From your Black Sheep thread.

Ah, I completely understand now.

The Children (Tom Shankland 2008)
Yup it's a killer-children-run-amok movie, the kind of taboo premise that brings back fond memories of David Cronenberg's The Brood (1979) and Richard Donner's The Omen (1976). I was looking forward to watching this after reading some favorable reviews, but sadly my viewing experience was not a happy one.

The film is about yuppie couple Elaine (Eva Birthistle) and Jonah (Stephen Campbell Moore) who along with Elaine's teenage daughter Casey (Hannah Tointon) and Jonah's young daughter from a previous relationship; go off to the country to celebrate new year with their similarly smug friends. They are Chloe (Rachel Shelly) and Robbie (Jeremy Sheffield); naturally Chloe and Robbie have young children too, and everything is going swimmingly until the sickly kids start acting erratic...

The Children is Tom Shankland's second directorial feature, he co wrote the screenplay with Paul Andrew Williams - who also wrote and directed UK comedy horror The Cottage (2008). Most of Shankland's experience is in television though, and it's all to evident here with the dreary characters and generic 'BBC drama' score. His attempts to establish these 'characters' in the first act doesn't work because they're stereo-typical young middle class families, and as such, boring. The dialogue isn't dumb or badly acted, just uninspiring and thus forgettable. Shankland does fare slightly better when it comes to building up tension with some snappy editing and decent photography. Unfortunately though when the strange events escalate into crisis (a fatal sledging mishap and a bone breaking fall from a climbing frame) it's so contrived and ridiculous that the film completely loses credibility. This might be OK if The Children was a tongue-in-cheek black comedy, but it isn't; the film is clearly intended to be a slick and very serious horror movie.



Most unforgivable however is the boneheaded way these supposedly intelligent and successful people behave once the mayhem begins. All rationality vanishes as they make one unbelievably stupid decision after another (like sending teenage daughter Casey into the woods alone to look for the clearly homicidal Children...duh the list goes on). No these well-to-do people spend the rest of the movie screaming and running around like headless chickens. Not only that but we're given absolutely no explanation as to why the kids become killers in the first place save for a viral infection that makes them feel sick. Where did it come from? Why are they killing their parents? Why is it only affecting children? Why did I watch this movie again? *groan*. To be fair Shankland doesn't shy away from showing the murderous sprogs killed in a variety of ways, and I suppose I could argue that he was trying to deliver some kind of social commentary on the breakdown of the family unit. Then again I could also be writing this review from the confines of a mental institution.

* Reposted from Movie Tab.

Thanks for the review UF. Like you, I was looking forward to this and hadn't really heard anything too bad about it. Was thinking of buying it soon, I'm not not so sure now.

You may well like it...I'm just sick of all these Brit horrors with their smug landrover driving yuppies and idiotic uninspiring scripts. The Children is infuriatingly stupid at times, with unsympathetic two dimensional characters and cookie cutter art direction. Then again I'm a nit picking bastard when it comes to modern British horror films. The only two from recent years I've liked and bought were Dog Soldiers and The Descent.

Rolling Thunder (John Flynn 1977) +
Do you have a movie you've wanted to see for years? A movie you've built up and put on a pedestal without ever having seen? One of those movies that's supposed to be great but is frustratingly hard to come by and largely forgotten? Well I do, and it's John Flynn's 1977 revenge flick Rolling Thunder. I'm not proud when I confess that I had to use illegal means to finally see this movie. But hey, seen as those idiot studio bosses haven't seen fit to give it a dvd release, then I feel my breach of the law was justified. Short of spending silly money on the Spanish dvd release, or paying way over the odds for a vhs copy, then piracy is the only way to see Rolling Thunder...

The film was written by Paul Schrader who penned Scorsese's Taxi Driver the previous year, and would go on to script further classics such as Blue Collar (1978) and Raging Bull (1980). With Rolling Thunder however, Schrader was clearly still exploring some of the themes he'd covered with Taxi Driver. This film is also about a Vietnam Veteran who can't readjust to, or connect with society. The difference being that Rolling Thunder plays as an action/revenge movie as well as a gripping character study. Though to merely lump it in with the glut of generic seventies revenge movies made in the wake of Michael Winner's Death Wish (1974) would be doing it a huge disservice.

Rolling Thunder is about Major Charles Rane (William Devane) who returns home from Vietnam after spending eight years of torture as a prisoner of war. On his return he's greeted at the airport like a hero and later honored by the town who give him a red Cadillac and a cache of silver dollars. Rane's home life is a different story however, with his young son practically a stranger, and his wife having since agreed to marry his best friend. Clearly scarred by his experience as a POW, Rane appears detached and unconcerned by his wife's infidelity, instead focusing on rebuilding the relationship with his son. This is shattered when armed thugs looking for the silver dollars invade Rane's home severely maiming him and killing his family. Once recovered, the hook handed Rane sets about locating his son's killers with the aide of local beauty queen Linda (Linda Haynes) who worships him, and army buddy Johnny (Tommy Lee Jones), the only one who understands him...

I should check it out, great review Future. Although, personally I know and see what it is that drives Travis crazy.

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