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Don't Go to Sleep (1982)
Not scary at all, unless your under the age of 10 !
I watched this film with my girlfriend, thinking it would be really exciting and scary after reading all the positive reviews on here. After sitting though this for 90 minutes, it turned out to be a real dull experience for both of us. I really wanted to like the film but I just couldn't. The film lacked any real eeriness or shocking scenes. The house was not creepy to create an environment of fear and all the attempts at any chills or horror where all standard stuff. Dennis Weaver played the husband and father to his wife and children, his character came across as a weak and pathetic individual who was unable to take charge or do anything except winge and whine like a girl and drink alcohol. He wasn't the take charge kind of Father of Husband. He reminded me of his Character "David Mann" in his most famous film "Duel" as a weak businessman that was having marital problems and being stalked by a truck on the road. He could not carry this film or get me interested in caring for his character.
The scene with the giant green lizard was hilarious and just stupid; you could see this thing travelling through the house with the camera behind it, being carried to a bedroom by someone and then crawling on a bed with silly terrifying music in a bid to build up the scene. It is then seen slowly crawling under the covers with its webbed feet on the sleeping grandma's pyjamas and crawls up to her neck. Oh my goodness, it gives her a heart attack and next thing we see her in a stretcher! The psychiatrist scenes are flat and uninteresting. Robert Webber is very wooden with his acting and seems very miscast and the script lacks any clever psychological mind games between the sister and psychiatrist. The film plods along with various cast members being killed and hurt in accidents. All scenes are very standard and nothing is scary. The final scene that everyone seems to think is terrifying is just a joke! Shiver me timbers what was that! A 10 second scene with an apparition appearing in a bedroom and then the credits start rolling, if you're under 10 years old you might have been shivering with fear but not as an adult. Stay away from this one!
Living & Dying (2007)
A Turkish Epic of Poor Film Making and Turkish actors with nothing to do !
What was with all the Turkish actors? No offense but I thought it was all for nothing for all these actors. The film had no script to test any actors acting skill or ability. It demanded next to nothing I bought this film to see Michael Madsen. He is one of my favorite actors but this film was another failure for him. The script was so bad. Their was just nothing to sink your teeth into and all the characters were two dimensional. Madsen tried to act like a hard ass but the script and direction didn't even allow him to do enough with his character to make it more interesting or 3 dimensional.
Even the sound effects of the gunfight at the beginning of the film sounded like the noise of paint ball guns when they are fired in a skirmish. It was really weird and they didn't sound like real guns. A video game had better sound effects than this film. There was also a really annoying bloke at the beginning of the film who was a member of the robbery gang. He had this American whining voice like a girl shouting lines like "Lets get the F#$k out of here" and What are we going to do man". He sounded like a girl. As a positive It was funny to watch and it made me laugh too. For a few seconds. Whoo Hoo ! Dumb Film. Poor Madsen. He will bounce back...
To Kill a Clown (1972)
Lonely and Strange Film
To Kill a Clown is one of the strangest Films I've Ever Watched. Its an Odd mix of Psychology and Social Commentary on The United States and Its Post Vietnam War Hangover. The story concerns mainly 3 people living on an isolated island off the coast of New England. A hippie couple who have recently bought a holiday home to try and work on their marriage and a lonely , crippled , sad Vietnem veteran named Major Evelyn Ritchie played by Alan Alda in the most odd film role of his career. The film hints that Ritchie has lived on the island for most of his life , even as a young child through to his adult years and that his parents are now dead. He's proudly fought for his country in Vietnam and has paid the price by stepping on a land mine and being reduced to walking on crutches. His only company on the island is his 2 pet Dobermans and a Strange old man that joins him for a beer or two occasionally from time to time. The Film fails to define the old man's character and this remains a mystery. Ritchie in one scene sits with old man drinking beer and jokes at how he and his army buddies tortured Gooks and how funny and satisfying it was for him to have these experiences in Vietnam.
The Hippie Couple are just run of the mill folk who really know nothing about fighting in a war or demeaning military discipline. They are peace loving people. The Husband Timothy has a personality completely opposite to Major Ritchie and this is where the Conflict Occurs. Timothy's personality is that of a Clown , a Hippie , a laid back dude that doesn't take much in his life too seriously.
Ritchie at first is friendly to the newly arrived couple , he visits there beach house a number of times and comes across as a nice, warm friendly man. The couple feel sorry for him, particularly the wife Lily. She then decides to invite Ritchie to have dinner at her house with her and her husband Timothy one night. The evening rolls on but as Timothy gets more and more drunk , the more he gets silly and it seems to change Ritchie. Particularly when Ritchie talks of his time in the army and the strict discipline required and being a POW.
Timothy on the other hand finds Ritchie's experiences Alien to himself and talks more about being a clown. He decides to show Ritchie his clown impersonations and its makes Ritchie somewhat disgusted , annoyed. Ritchie's Fake affable laugh also makes him creepy with his interactions with the couple when he's trying to come across as friendly. Ritchie then challenges Timothy to a contest to see if he could put up with a Military way of life.
The next day Ritchie stands outside the couple's house with his 2 vicious Dobermans. He flips out and begins acting like a drill Sargent making Timothy participate in monotonous tasks and treats him like a soldier. Ritchie uses his dogs to make sure that Timothy obeys his orders. He makes Timothy move rocks all day in the scorching sun , salute like a soldier and screams at him to stand to attention. He lectures Timothy on Discipline and comes off very deranged. The couple become Hostages to Ritchie and he gets a kick out of frightening them with his Dogs and playing mind games with his hostages.
The most powerful and curious scene in the film is when Lily goes to Ritchie's House while her husband is on the beach under the guard of the Dobermans. She walks into Ritchie's bedroom finding him sitting alone on his bed. An American flag on his wall. She attempts to seduce him by taking her clothes off and sitting naked in front of him. Ritchie has this broken , sombre and lonely look in his face and begins to talk about being a Teenager and falling in love with a beautiful girl that lived near his house on the island. He tried to watch her as much as he could secretly. He mentions his cruel, strict Father and how he felt it was wrong to show emotion for the girl due to the upbringing of his Father. In fact he makes it clear that he never had the opportunity to have a relationship with her as she ended up moving away and leaving the island and he felt alone again. In his moment of storytelling you get a perception that from that point in his past he never knew how to love anything anymore and probably never had that opportunity to feel drawn to a woman ever again. The perception is that he joined the army and became devoted by mind , body and soul to be a cold Killer and he never had emotion or love for something again. The scene in the bedroom ends when Lily tries to kiss him and he slaps her in the face. Telling her to get out. He rejects her. I feel he did this due to his lack of understanding to love or that he is impotent from his land mine accident and can't sleep with a woman. Alda pulls of the scene very well and it makes you feel sorry in some ways for His character as he looks like such a twisted broken soul. Loneliness is painful , you can see his pain all over his face.
I won't give away the rest of the film but it basically is a struggle for survival. The couple tries to find a way to kill Ritchie and his dogs and get off the island. Not many people have seen this film and it is rare but its an offbeat film that is enjoyable to watch for its strange storyline and Alan Alda's deranged performance.
Death Weekend (1976)
Still Powerful
Death Weekend is a Powerful atmospheric Film. Its a Basic story of a Rich Dentist who loves himself and his money too much. He Brings a fashion Model with him to his country getaway house for the weekend but the pair both have to fight for survival after 4 thugs follow them back to their secluded isolated Country Retreat and hold them captive. The film is Entertaining showing the interaction between The Thugs and the couple. Chuck Shamata plays the dentist who just loves his materialistic possessions and money so much. He has a beautiful house filled with expensive collectibles and furniture. His ego is that of a man who cares for no one but himself and this is evident later in the film when his partner's life and well being is threatened by the thugs who want to rape her and bash her around. The dentist only gets upset and tries to act when his house and possessions are threatened by destruction.
Don Stroud , a Favourite actor of mine has one of his finest hours on film as the leader of the thugs named "Lep". He is really Mean and Violent towards anyone , even his own gang and plays his character with lots of Coolness and Menace. To me , he is a Very bad person but he also shows us in a rare scene or two that he has some feeling towards the fashion model and his behaviour towards her is maybe not purely for the purpose of committing rape.While they are alone in the garden shed after she tries to escape , He stops trying to Rape her after she stops resisting him with her fists and arms , he stops the rape.Then he gently tries to touch her face and kiss her as they are both standing up. She rejects him with a slap in the face and then he hits her but its an interesting scene.A few images of This scene is also cut to at the end of the film after she kills "Lep" by running over him with a car. There is a quick shot of Lep smiling at her in the grassy field and then another cut to the kiss he tried to give her in the shed after she stopped fighting with him. I felt the Director was trying to say something about Lep's character and that he was not entirely all bad as a person. Maybe just a bit lonely and in need of good woman that he wanted to love. Maybe he didn't have to die. The Film has plenty of good scenes. I really liked watching the 4 thugs drink all the alcohol in the house and run amok. They get drunk ,Throw Beer on each other and all around the place ,Act Stupid , Make a Mess ,Vomit , fart and make total idiots of themselves as they totally intimidate and show no respect for the dentist's house.Lep questions the dentist's vast materialism with his house and possessions and labels it all crap. This is funny and it builds to a very dramatic scene where Stroud and his men no longer show any restraint and totally go crazy and start trashing the whole house and furniture to bits. They smash and destroy everything they can yelling , screaming and laughing. Its very funny to see these four morons totally lose it and shows they enjoy acting crazy.
My Girlfriend watched this film with me and had a real hate for Don Stroud's Lep Character and the 3 other men in his gang. She couldn't wait to see them get killed by the Fashion model. They play very evil, sleazy men and act like filthy animals. The Director really portrayed the thugs as very low class human beings. Actually some of the worst thugs i've seen on film ever. Their behaviour is so low life.
Death Weekend is a real 70s Classic. A great Well Paced Thriller with some good Performances. The film is sleazy with its characters but there is no graphic nudity or rape scenes. Overall Well Directed.
Stroud and Brenda Vaccaro are Great and Carry this film....
Shiner (2000)
Awful Film , Just Dreadful...
Michael Caine might have tried to make a larger than life character to a successful degree but the whole storyline and Character's around him where not likable or interesting at all. It was all very Boring and somewhat predictable. Martin Landau , a favorite actor of mine had a nothing role.He was useless. Michael Caine got a bit irritating after a while and the film couldn't decide if it was a comedy or a serious thriller. Caine tries hard and good on him but i felt the direction and storyline let him down. Don't waste your time. It starts off well for the first 10 minutes and then that's about it. A film for Die Hard Caine Fans Only. Stay away from this One...
Without Warning (1980)
Scary and Dark
I really enjoyed Without Warning. The film used good Locations and good Horror at the right moments. The cast of Actors in the film where all excellent in their roles. I liked the Alien , it looked stupid in some ways and i guess a bit dated with its costume but funny to watch.
Martin Landau , a favorite actor i like to watch , does standout in this film. He overacts a bit as a disturbed Vietnam Vet, sure. Although I still enjoyed his scenery Chewing Performance. He had kind of aged quickly from his Space 1999 Days a few years earlier and looked very old with his wrinkled face and long, Black , gray hair in the film. I think he's the sort of actor that is very good at screaming, Yelling and having that crazy look about him. Its funny to note how he kind of struggled in his film career in the 70s and early 80s but i still think some of his film roles where interesting and enjoyable to watch. In Without Warning he adds to the fear of the young teenagers that are being stalked in an isolated area with not too many people around with his eccentric personality. Jack Palance was great as the strange looking old Hunter that helps the teenagers. Cameron Mitchell was good trying to play a Tough Father who seems to think he's pretty sure of himself. Mitchell might only have been in the film for 5 minutes or so but his character shows interesting glimpses of a perhaps disturbed man. This is evident when he points his shotgun at his son from a distance in the bush and thinks about blowing him away as he is unhappy that his son is not a tough nut like himself that enjoys hunting and killing and maybe that his son was a Mama's Boy. An Interesting scene Anayway. If you can get a copy of Without Warning its worth a look. Watch it in the dark
Pray for Death (1985)
Great Revenge Film
I first watched this film when i was only 5 years old with my Dad and really enjoyed it. I have just obtained a copy of this film 21 years later and think its great. I would strongly recommend it to any action fan. The main Villain in the film is Actor James Booth playing the tough evil Mafia Enforcer 'Limehouse Willie'. He really plays his Sadistic character with a lot of Conviction. He was just so Ruthless and Cruel and was quite believable as a Mafia Nut that enjoyed inflicting pain and death on other people. Not all of the action scenes are great but there is a few well staged sequences that really are enjoyable to watch, especially the raid on Mr Newman's Mansion and the Saw Mill Confrontation with "Limehouse Willie". The film is dated being made back in 1985 but to me this is no big deal and i try not to have massive expectations with films made 20-40 years ago. Its entertaining enough as a revenge story with all the usual ingredients and a standout performance by James Booth. Its a tough , Violent, serious film that isn't scared of getting its hands dirty and i like these kind of films. The Wife of Sho Kosugi in the film was an OK sexy Asian Babe and this was worth a mention too. I'm all for a DVD Release !