Saturday 18 May
 
 
DVD reviews

The Last Stand

Early in The Last Stand, the small-town sheriff played by Arnold Schwarzenegger says, "It's my day off. Should be a quiet weekend." That's the new way of saying, "I've got one week to retirement," because it signals — with flashing neon and everything — that life is going to royally upend those plans.
05/17/2013 | Comments 0

Texas Chainsaw

One of the most inconsistent franchises in movie history is the one beget by Tobe Hooper's 1974 classic, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. How does one follow all those less-than-beloved sequels? Lionsgate's latest in the series — the seventh — has a solution: Ignore 'em.
05/17/2013 | Comments 0

Captain America: Collector’s Edition

Not long after Batman changed Hollywood in the summer of 1989, every studio wanted to have the next comics-based blockbuster. I remember visiting Penn Square Mall’s multiplex (as I did often back then) and seeing a poster for Captain America. The one-sheet was comprised of little more than a close-up of Cap’s iconic shield and a promise to arrive next summer.
05/16/2013 | Comments 0

Dark Circles

With the Broken Lizard comedy troupe becoming increasingly broken, member Paul Soter has branched off to write and direct something about as far away as one can get from the likes of Super Troopers and Beerfest: a horror film. Now that I've seen it, I'm thinking maybe he should stay on his own.
05/16/2013 | Comments 0

Die! Die! My Darling!

File 1965's Die! Die! My Darling! under that now-dead subgenre dubbed "Grande Dame Guignol." The Hammer Films production may lack the dueling duo of two twilight-era titans of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and the others, but truth be told, Tallulah Bankhead is fierce enough to provide all the fire it needs.
05/14/2013 | Comments 0

Fantastic Fest: 'Underwater Love'


Turtle power!

By Rod Lott September 24th, 2011
Asked the Fantastic Fest programmer in his introduction to this film, "Are you ready for some turtle sex in the afternoon?" Hailing from Japan, "Underwater Love" bills itself as a "pink musical." For those not in the know, that refers to a popular genre in the Far East: sex movies without real sex. In other words, not porn.

Besides, the porn industry is not interested in sex on the half-shell.

Shot in one week, in-attendance director Shinji Imaoka's bizarro romance musical concerns a woman who spots a kappa, a Japanese creature, who used to be her high school classmate until he drowned. Now, two decades later, he's reborn as a kappa — specifically, a cucumber-hungry turtle man with a beak that's big, but not as big as his reproductive organs. Occasionally, the cast members break out into near-nonsensical songs, but at least said tunes are provided by awesome German band Stereo Total.

Even weirder, this shot-on-video, no-budget wonder boasts the esteemed Christopher Doyle ("Chungking Express," "Hero") as its cinematographer. You wouldn't know it while watching, but it does lend legitimacy to the film, which goes on longer than its slim story supports.

After all, once you've watched a woman climax with a turtle, where else can you go? —Rod Lott

 
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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