Q: How do you put a sweater on a cat?
A: The exact same way you deploy a condom.
How to dress a cat. No, I mean with clothes
Midnight Movie Madness
“Kirikou and the Sorceress” – (74 minutes, France/Belgium/Luxembourg, 1998 NR)
This is lighter fare, of the kind both grown ups and children (though not too small) would enjoy for both its lessons and visuals. This is the third of Michel Ocelot’s animations we have watched and while all three are distinct and original, there is a common humanistic thread to his tales that is enchanting. Ocelot’s background covers virtually every aspect of animation from background artist to director, producer and narrator.
See a scene here:
I don’t believe his name is well known here, although he certainly is widely recognized in his field.
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“The killer inside me”: portrait of a sociopath
“The killer inside me” – (109 minutes, USA 2010, rated R)
“I got one foot on both sides of the fence, I can’t move, I can’t jump.”
Lou Ford (Casey Affleck) is a Sheriff’s deputy in a small town in West Texas, easy going and friendly with all. As a matter of fact, Lou does a lot of favors. He takes care of his community, no fuss, no muss.
That is until the Sheriff (Tom Bower), a good old boy drowning despair in alcohol, asks him to tell a hooker living on the outskirts of town to get a move on. Joyce (Jessica Alba) doesn’t take the news well, and slaps, then hits Lou. This exchange triggers something in him that he buried many years earlier. He gives Joyce a whipping with his belt and there starts a relationship based on animal lust and forceful, dangerous sex.
This also presents Lou with an opportunity to settle old scores. As he put it himself, “the problem with growing up in a small town is that everyone thinks they know you”.
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Midnight Movie Madness: Pig Hunt
“Pig Hunt” – (100 minutes, USA 2008, rated R)
Woof. What a week. And a half. Starting a new job, in a different industry has thrown me off my game somewhat, and here I am apologizing to our fantastic readers for this late review.
The Midnight Movie Madness shall continue! But now on weekends instead of Wednesdays. Ah well, working in service industries (is there anything else left?) has taught me to grovel.
Have I got a good one for you, now…? I developed an inclination for this movie as soon as I saw that Les Claypool not only did the score, but appears in a small role, as a vengeful hillbilly wearing a priest’s collar and a Stetson. We like the funk here at JBoD, and Claypool’s so funky he was turned down by Metallica when he auditioned with them in the 80’s. Their loss and probably a good thing as he went on to front Primus. The man is not only an extremely talented musician, he is local, born in Richmond California, across the bridge from us.
“Pig hunt” might not be everybody’s cup of tea, particularly people unfamiliar with California. It seems to cram a lot, too much color, too much weird…. But this is California! The movie has a plethora of strange characters from weird hippies carrying Kukri knives (they HAVE to draw blood once they are unsheathed), to crazed rednecks, not to mention the odd group of friends going to these here parts near Boonville (in Beautiful Mendocino county) from San Francisco.
Watch the trailer:
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Music video: “Vlad the impaler”
Cheerful, innit..? Here’s Noel Fielding (“the Mighty Boosh”) again, this time in a clip for the group Kasabian (UK). Enjoy.
Updated – The Zombie movie genre: minor exploratory surgery
Since George Romero’s “night of the living dead” in 1968, the genre seems to have been growing across genres (comedy, sci-fi) and media (comics, novels, video games), and depending on the country of origin, even says something about cultural mores.
“Night of the living dead” had some interesting things to say about race and class relations, which perhaps had to be expected as it was made in the late ‘60s.
And “dawn of the dead” (1978), also from Romero, had consumerism as a subtext and used a mall as location which introduced different dynamics.
But really, zombie flicks are about bloody mayhem which provides relief after a long day at work, dealing with people you might wish were dead. So without further ado, let’s look at a serious offering from France. “They came back” (2004) from Robin Campillo will not satisfy your urges for carnage because there is none to be had.
What “they came back” does offer is more along the lines of what they call “l’etrange, le bizarre, l’insolite”: it is eerie and at times really disquieting, particularly the couple instances reintroducing children to their parents.
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Mint Royale’s “Blue Song”: start the weekend on a cool groove
Big fans of “the Mighty Boosh” here, we love this vid they (Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt) did for the group Mint Royale.
Also in the clip is Nick Frost (“Shaun of the dead”, “Hot Fuzz”). You might never guess the singer’s actually a ginger.
Enjoy!
Midnight Movie Madness
“Fido” – (93 minutes, USA 2006)
“What is it boy? Is Timmy in trouble?”
In these alternative 1950s, after the “zombie wars”, life resumed in America within fenced in communities managed and policed by a corporation named Zomcon (zombie containment is their motto). Hordes of ‘untamed’ zombies roam the zones outside the communities’ perimeter, while within, domesticated zombies wearing electronic shock-collars serve the living delivering milk, papers, mowing lawns and acting as household help, etc.
In order to keep up with the neighbors, Helen Robinson (Carrie Ann Moss) buys a domesticated zombie helper (Billy Connolly), much to her neurotic husband’s (Dylan Baker) dismay. Bill Robinson has a serious phobia of zombies since childhood, when his dad and uncle tried to eat his brain.
Certainly a very sore subject around the dinner table.
Bill is distant with his son Timmy (Kesun Loder) and pretty sadistic towards the zombie helper, zapping him for the slightest reason, and repeatedly. Timmy decides to call the zombie Fido and the two become friends, inasmuch as you can with a Z-dude.
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Someone is getting grounded
No Jason? Wot’s it all aboot?!?
“Friday the 13th: the series” – (Canada 1987-1990)
Those familiar with this series know it has bugger-all to do with the movie franchise. Nada. No Jason Vorhees here, eh?
In this series from Canada, made when cars were in their cubist period and hair was BIG, an old dude by the name of Lewis Vendredi (meaning Friday in French, geddit?) has second thoughts on the deal he made with Satan and gets his soul repossessed as a result. [Insert current political jokes here]
Watch ole’ Lewis (R.G. Armstrong) buying the farm:
His antiques shop is then inherited by his nephews Micki Foster (Louise Robey) and Ryan Dallion (John D. LeMay). Soon after they take possession of the shop and try to decide what to do with it, they meet Jack Marshak (Chris Wiggins), a man who used to do business with the dear departed uncle. Or is that deported to hell?!?
Can they trust this old dude (he’s well above 30 and into the occult)?
Can Micki keep her fiancé panting whilst deciding which conditioner is best?
Can Ryan decide whether channeling Andrew McCarthy is a good career move?
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