Phantasma-gore-ia Blog

Saw it too late, perhaps

Phantasma-gore-ia — Wed, 16 May 2007 16:02:58 GMT

Because this movie was made in '74 and I wasn't made until '82 and didn't see it until last week, its characteristic, inspired themes became passe and considerably old hat in just the ensuing years, i.e. the end of the 70s, much less into the great-great-great-great-(etc.)-grandchildren: I Know What You Did Last Summer, Wrong Turn, et al. The core ideas (the killer being in the house, gatherings of nubile, vulnerable girls, obvoius distractors (red herrings like Keir's character) and such became textbook lesson, sure-fire blueprints for a killer movie a long time before I saw it, and consequently I just didn't get jived by it. The discordant voices on the phone were unnatural and haunting, but the killer being in the house was suggested aready by the fact that he used the same phones the girls had. I hated how we didn't see this "Billy" nor understand why in heaven's (or hell's) name he tore into his deadly rage. Had I seen this in '74, however, it would look and sound different today, but I missed it by...33 years.

Leave a doctor no choice...

Phantasma-gore-ia — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 04:01:00 GMT

An engaging tale of renegade doctors (not so because they're unlicensed hacks but rather they flout the system), Article 99 describes John Q style what happens when lives are on the line and a bureaucratic system with knots like macrama threatens to impede the process. Yes, the titular stipulation is fictional, but the medical drama experienced is indeed real. ;)

About as quirky as it gets

Phantasma-gore-ia — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 03:56:29 GMT

This decidedly offbeat flick starts with a man taking his disjointed family to KFC, leaving them clues to a kind of treasure hunt of sorts left in ever-smaller bags like fast-food Chinese nesting boxes. As they embark on his peculiar odyssey, they start to weld bonds that bridge the gaps they let grow in preceding years. An unsual sort of family film, it's my idea of a cool way to spend an hour and a half.

Big-scale, epic, lavish love story

Phantasma-gore-ia — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 03:51:05 GMT

All that and more, this heartfelt story of a philanthropic altruist (she likes people and wants to do good things for them) in love with a bullheaded ruler. Talking to him is like "talking to a brick wall" I believe her words were, but eventually she melted his icy heart and, as Chuck Woolery would say, a love connection is made. Heart-warming and very artistic, this movie has a particular spot in my collective film memory and I hope it will in yours...provided you don't "lose interest." ;)

Brilliant, complex, a winner

Phantasma-gore-ia — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 03:44:49 GMT

Just that. Like any Christie masterpiece, it's a total guessing game with a frustrating lack of answers for its hapless cast of characters. Essentially, ten people find themselves on an island with a record that accuses them individually of varying crimes. They get knocked off successively with an ending that, while not in keeping with Agatha's original story due to the dictation of the Hayes code, is still a "wow" moment. It's similarities to Identity (2002) can't be ignored, but that doesn't mean by any respect that the latter isn't a great movie or even derivative, managing to devise new and smart connections between the characters as reasons for them all to be held down and picked off, one by one.

Time travel trouble in an otherwise good film

Phantasma-gore-ia — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 03:29:28 GMT

This movie was cool, but it committed an error that beset Minority Report and is in fact a common hitch in time travel (henceforth TT) stories, namely causality and the fact that even in TT, something has to happen after the action that gave rise to it. One can't go back to the beginning if it hasn't occurred at least once. Unless interdimensional issues are seeded into the script, one traditionally hops back and forth only in a single continuum and because of that the rules of natural order will still apply. The problem this movie and MR had was that they violated this and gave both characters an effect before there was a cause, the effect thereby being the cause.An event cannot, even in the most futuristic and imaginative sci-fi setting, cause itself, as it does in the two under discussion. Here, Kris's character gives Adrien's information only because Adrien gave it to him first, years ago. That itself was only because...get this...Kris told him! In other words, Kris tells Adrien a list of patients’ names in the future. This is only because in the past, Adrien rattled them off after a stay in the jacket. Because it's the past, it's the first Kris has heard of it. Now, logically, how can this be? Where did it start? If Adrien, in the past, tells Kris things that Kris told him only because Adrien said that Kris told him, we find ourselves in a self-devouring loop with no beginning and no end. Essentially, each character knew the information because the other informed him. TT is all well and good, but it would be pure if one would address rather than sidestep such problems.Despite this, it’s a very good movie with an ending that lets a little hope leak into the bleak narrative, letting you leave on a good note. ;)

Your basic high-altitude terror

Phantasma-gore-ia — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 03:26:25 GMT

Not overly spectacular but not terrifically bad, this fare (ahem) was a good time at the movies, if you can get a hold of it. Expect similarities to Turbulence and Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying, Die Hard III and, to a degree, Red-Eye. ;)

Awesome movie

Phantasma-gore-ia — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 00:30:17 GMT

For a different kind of thrill, check out this dark action flick based on reception of privileged information regarding an imminent nuclear beatdown and the predictably chaotic reaction. The story starts with a nobody (E.R.'s Anthony Edwards) who happened to answer that phone at that time and then accelerates through his sweat-soaked, fevered attempts to win over the populace and drive home the message that they're all about to be erased off the face of the earth. Add to that the love of his life (whom he just, I mean just, met) with whom if he is to die in an hour and a half he would love to spend those concluding moments. Mix in a seasoning of truly hard moments (Edwards' seeing his parents for the last time as they drive off together to their favorite restaurant to go out in style) and the very last frames, this uncompromising film examines human nature and true love.

A truly grim collection

Phantasma-gore-ia — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 00:14:12 GMT

Living up to the decidedly fatal and morbid appeal of its namesake, the Tales series, this anthology mix features five stories that explore the lives and deaths of as many new souls as inducted into hell. They are firmly in keeping with the structure of the show in that they are ultimate examples of dire poetic justice and no one getting away without recieving their final comeuppance. If you liked this title, I recommend Tales from the Darkside and Necronomicon, also collection-style flicks.

Brilliant thriller

Phantasma-gore-ia — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 23:33:13 GMT

Inventive and well-filmed, a highlight moment in this film is the construction, assembly and operation of John's character's plastic gun he fashioned by hand from his own molds and the concealment of the ammunition in a rabbit's foot keychain, complete with several keys so it would be set aside and never go through the detector. If you're an Eastwood fan or not or a Malkovich fan or not, I would like to think it would earn a decent place in your collection and general estimation.