Harry Brown

If you followed the career path of Michael Caine you might well wonder what happened, from being crowned the King of Cool in movies such as Get Carter, Alfie, and The Italian Job; Caine almost dropped out of the popular movie genre. During the 80’s and 90’s with the odd exception (Educating Rita, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The forth Protocol) his movies were generally bottom end stuff, most of his output in this time is available on super low budget DVD. For Caine however age made him turn a corner, and as the star tentatively spoke about a cameo in popular soap Eastenders, his movie career took of in ways he possibly never realised. With two Batman movies, Children Of Men, and the highly acclaimed Is Anybody There? Behind him Caine now returns in his intriguing movie yet, Harry Brown.

Harry Brown follows a history of popular vigilante movies like Death Wish, Exterminator, Falling Down, and more recently, and perhaps more similarly Grand Torino. Harry Brown follows a pensioner as he makes the daily slog off his East London council estate past the gangs of violent youths to see his wife (terminally ill in hospital), and best friend Len. In a blink of an eye Harry’s life is torn apart, firstly his wife dies, then in a suspicious incident Len is killed by the gangs that essentially run the estate. An ex marine, Harry’s killer instinct is revived in a late night attack by the banks of a canal, having easily despatched one of these thugs, Harry is determined to take the rest down, regardless of cost.

To use the term gritty would be too tame a word to describe this movie from first feature film helmer Daniel Barber. From the movies incredibly shocking opening to its brutal finale, Barber has carefully depicted the ultimate hell on earth in the form of a London council estate, forget all those dark desolate New York based movies of the 1970’s, Barbers London is a far darker place, more deadly than Afghanistan. What Barber does is shows how these essential ghettos work, some people seeing the trouble some of the time, while others see it all the time. Barber shows Harry Browns eyes widening as he sees the horror of what’s going on in the place he calls home. While Brown always knew it was there, he has always avoided the spots that the bad things happen, giving him a more sheltered view.

I suspect Barber has studied CCTV footage of gang related violence, because in the movies first portion he shows how one incident can quickly go out of control, in an instant you see a man protecting his property, to having his head smashed open more or less on his very front door; this is powerful stuff.

When faced with real menace, you go out of yourself you become a far stronger person, this is the stance of Harry Brown; whom with everything gone suddenly finds that the anger of loss is to much to bear, with one man already dead thanks to his quick reflexes you see Brown move from dwindling seventy year old to a man of unknown age fighting for what is right. Compassion gone Brown moves to man of action, and Caine portrays this fantastically. Its great to see the transformation from man who takes five minutes to make a cuppa, to the man that terminates wrong doers in a heartbeat. There is no reasoning with Brown, no time for regrets, Brown moves sleekly and does what he believes is right in order to create the best outcome for everyone.

Criticism has been given to the movie for being a little too trigger happy, and that’s probably right towards the back end of the feature. At the same time however, you do have to ask what you might do if placed in these circumstances. And if there is any criticism to make really its only towards the end when things develop into total riot, and Brown finds himself in the right place at the right time.

At the time I never considered the issue of race, but thinking on it seems that the casting team are not going to take the easy option of race behind this estates anarchy. These are proper white British gangs, ran indirectly by proper east end gangsters and associates, any minority race involved are there literally by minority. Its very easy in movies to lean heavily on the race aspect, but there are no cheap punches here.

I touched on the final portion of the movie, and it does get a little predictable, and essentially ultra violent, as one woman police crusader Inspector Frampton (Emily Mortimer) closes in on Brown who she has always suspected to be a little too involved in the spurge of criminal deaths. As the estate falls into anarchy, Frampton adds fuel to a fire by Scooby Doo style revealing a secret to Brown about relationships on the estate. While a little bit out of synch with the rest of the film, in fairness its difficult to decide where things would lead from the road the film has taken.

If I have one issue with the film it’s the blasé way that the deaths of the gang members (at the hands of Brown) are almost unmentioned by the police, almost thrown in as an afterthought. But beyond that, I have no issue with Harry Brown, and while it makes itself undoubtedly the best British movie of 2009, it also makes itself the best vigilante movie of all time.

Harry Brown opens in UK cinemas on November 11^th.

The Dying Breed

Once every while a movie comes along that leaves such a punch in its final moments that its final message outweighs any other aspect of the film.

New Aussie horror The Dying Breed opens in a rather lengthy way, delivering an insight into four characters without really giving you a shred of information. Geared firmly at the character of Nina who has lots of meaningful moments, flashbacks and visions of events that occurred to her sister in a rural location sometime earlier. The movies characters all have headed to a strange backwater in search of the site of the mysterious Tasmanian Tiger, something that is as great a myth as Bigfoot. While Nina acts all weird and deep, the others all seem to share a mutual dislike for each other forming two parties. But as they feud, they all miss completely the tensions that surround them.

My opening paragraph may seem a little confused, but to be honest with you it all is pretty much, there are little explanations given as to why people are how they are, or why they behave the way they do; its all done in that way where the movies creators have tried to be on a higher intellectual plain than us mere mortals. The truth of the matter is, despite their best efforts its not very deep at all.

Now saying this, The Dying Breed is not a bad film, because what it does do is gather a couple of menacing factors and sticks them together. First up you have the issue of the Tasmanian Tiger, a creature that lives in isolation and is only rumored to exist, rumour suggests that the only reason its never been seen is because those that see it are eaten, and logic would tell you that such an illusive animal would be a little on the protective side to protect its lifestyle. The second and far more troubling is that back in the days of Australia being a prison one of the convicts known as Alexander The Pieman escaped and somehow managed to survive for a rather long time, well long enough to create some descendants, clue to his habits revolve around his nickname.

What you have in The Dying Breed is a good old-fashioned tale of Deliverance style locals and the wonder of cannibalism. The result of which, despite the producers best efforts to make the characters rather unlikeable; is quite a gross out movie offering filled with blood, gore and sometimes worse. Its all actually quite disturbing territory that harks back to the 1980’s video nasty era.

The punches are the basis of the movies success, because from the moment you enter the second half of the movie your transported into a variety of horrifically unpleasant circumstances, and disturbing visuals. Punch, punch, punch! Once the movie gets going its fairly relentless, characters are dispatched in continuously worse methods as it becomes apparent that the locals are clearly the descendants of The Pieman, and that Nina’s sister undoubtedly had some sort of nasty encounter with these locals.

The clear difference with this movie is that it packs two very big final punches one of which leads you to a false ending. And if that were not enough the text that appears onscreen just before the credits roll lead you on a wild and furious search online, because the story ends in such a way to make you wonder if the film could in fact be based on some true facts. And quite disturbingly, potentially it is.

Its grubby looking, broody, its empty on the character building front, but its actually pretty good entertaining viewing. And the sort of thing that keeps you thinking long after the credits roll. If nothing else it will give you some visuals to haunt your mind.

District 13: Ultimatum

I’m a firm believer that you should not go watching sequels before you have seen the first movie, sadly this was not an option available to me when I watched District 13: Ultimatum (Banlieue 13 – Ultimatum). Luckily for me the movie was so cleverly pieced together that if you had not caught the first its not going to be an issue, no catching up on story, no hidden riddles; Ultimatum sits happily as a stand alone movie.

Rather like Escape From New York, District 13 places the people nobody wants to know or hear about behind a wall were they can’t be a hindrance to normal everyday people. This Paris suburb is home to various races, and clans who all operate their own individual crime waves. When a corrupt government agency plans a despicable act in order to gain wealth and rid Paris of its little problem its down to cop Damien (Cyril Raffaelli) and District 13 freedom fighter Leito (David Belle) to gather the evidence and fight for the people of District 13 before the government raise it to the ground.

D13: Ultimatum mixes the action movie with the wonder of Parkour, creating an enticing visual spectacle that continuously finds you asking, “How the hell did they do that?” The fight scenes and stunts are quite simply some of the best I have seen, working against an alien Parisian background, the film takes what could be viewed as a potentially normal looking action movie to a whole different level. The action is incredibly well choreographed whether jumping from roof to roof, to fighting with an almost priceless Van Gogh painting which turns from being unpleasant looking work of art to the ultimate weapon.

Story wise it’s simplistic story telling, which to someone who does not speak French is possibly not a bad thing. This is not a criticism of the movie but plain straightforward good sense. Thrillers, comedies, and horror movies all work very well in another language with onscreen subtitles, but an action movie does not always have the same effect; lines are often spouted out in quick succession in action movies not always allowing you to enjoy the visual spectacle unfolding on screen. D13 allows you to enjoy the action without bogging you down with unnecessary dialogue. Thankfully the DVD takes care of those that do not like their movies in a pure form, and has a dubbed English version, this allows the movie to be enjoyed by the biggest possible audience, an option not so commonly used now days.

There is a lot of humour in the movie, a little cheesy in places but in a cheeky fashion. Director Patrick Alessandrin (and of course screenwriter Luc Besson) seem keen to show their comic side, when you first meet Damien he is disguised (fairly badly) as a geisha girl, while his head is clearly masculine a lot of time is spent focussing on his waxed feminine flesh; it’s a prime example of one of those situations that is so wrong, but incredibly amusing.

The performances are good David Belle, and Cyril Raffaelli both prove you can be physically well trained and deliver a convincing acting performance. Supporting performers such as Elodie Yung who plays the movies action woman add real sparkle, while MC Jean Gab’1 who plays gang boss Molko offers a real feeling of menace and fairness

You could say the French movie industry is a little overlooked, and to be fair the French are not known for their action movies, however D13: Ultimatum is a rare exception to the rule. It’s easily as addictive as Luc Besson’s Nikita, not quite so deep but incredibly compelling to watch. The inclusion of Parkour means that with the original movie an obvious exception there is nothing that quite looks like this, it’s an instant, identifiable, unique looking movie that while not gaining Blockbuster status will ultimately enjoy a somewhat cult following. One thing is for sure, having seen this I immediately hopped online to order the original movie, and I’m sure countless others will to; for fans of the original this will be the must have purchase of the year. D13 is one of the most interesting action movies of the year, its just a shame that it never got a little more limelight while not being completely perfect it’s a most enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes.

Special Features:-

A 26 minute documentary looks at the creation of the movie, pulling in cast and crew to talk about incidents and their personal take on the movie.

A series of extended and deleted scenes are included, most of which are fight scenes.

There is music video from French rapper Alonzo that combines the movies main musical score with the performers own style, with some interesting cross language dialogue.

Finally there is a teaser and theatrical trailer to promote the movie.

Language options are French and English.

District 13: Ultimatum is released in the UK on DVD by Momentum on the 26^th of October

The House By The Cemetery

There are few movies that have been affected quite as badly as a result of the UK’s video nasty furore than The House By The Cemetery. In 1984 when certification kicked in and movies started to become banned when our government was trying to yurn us into a nanny state House By The Cemetery was one of the first to go. Ironically in 1993 after nearly ten years in the wilderness it was one of the first of the former video nasties to get a release, then by the now defunct S. Gold & Sons sub label Vipco (S. Gold & Sons are also now defunct but were former pioneers in the home entertainment industry). While it secured its release there was a considerable amount of time edited from the movie. As DVD took off and Vipco planned a DVD release of the movie they then presented it before the BBFC (British Board Of Film Classification) again where it was agreed that they could release a slightly lengthened version. But it has taken till 2009, twenty five years since the movie was banned, for the movie to at last be seen in an uncut form in the United Kingdom.

House By The Cemetery is a movie from the infamously titled Godfather Of Gore Lucio Fulci, made during his heyday of 1979-1981 where his “Zombie” horror movies changed the way western culture looked at Zombies. I always feel referring to House By The Cemetery as a zombie movie does it an injustice because the movies killer is not strictly dead, a pretty rudimentary part of being a zombie in my book. None the less this is a movie that has great affection in my eyes, because although I had briefly skated round the genre of the Italian horror/thriller movie, it was after seeing this film that I became a fan of Italian horror forever.

Beginning in New York a young family are on the verge of making a move to Boston where Norman (Paolo Malco) is planning to continue the work of a colleague who seemingly turned insane and killed himself and his family. Wife Lucy (Katherine (or Catriona) MacColl) and son Bob (Giovanni Frezza) in toe, they arrive at Oak Mansion a remote house by a now disused graveyard. While Norman gets straight to work its Lucy’s responsibility to turn this old wreck of a house into a home. While Norman turns up very little Lucy is thrown straight into making discoveries, whilst cleaning the living area she discovers a tombstone with the name Jacob Tess Freudstein on it, a name that’s an essential part of Norman’s investigations. With creepy vocal noises half roaring half child crying, a disturbing looking babysitter, the impression that Norman knows a lot more than he’s letting on, and a bizarre but striking young girl by the name of May; The House By The Cemetery has all the essential factors to make a completely chilling horror movie.

I won’t tell you any lies the acting is not the best, director Fulci believing that the storytelling is more essential than the actors roles, this is in no means helped by the dubbing of all the characters into English; especially when either the dubbing artist or the Italian to English translator cannot identify the difference between a doctor or a baker “You really should be taking those tablets your baker prescribed” states Malco at a moment of high tension. But put aside these two facts and you have potentially the framework of one of the most cleverly crafted horror movies of the 1980’s. Fulci spends a great amount of the movies 85-85 minute running time building the tension, leaking out little snippets of information, or showing you just enough to keep you enthralled. Rather beautifully the movies killer although fairly obvious from the movies offset is not shown to the audience until the final moments of the film, and pretty is not a word you would use to describe it.

The Hostel movies got a lot of acclaim for their rather bloody and in your face gruesomeness; well House By The Cemetery does a similar job, the big difference being that Fulci’s classic was twenty five years earlier in back 1981. As you enter the killer’s lair properly for the first time, you’re treated to the remains of a variety of cannibalised victims, not cannibalised for food however, but for their organs and other essentials that a 200 year old killer might require. YUK!

Many of Lucio Fulci’s movies even through his better times are slightly disjointed leaving you with a “what just went on there?” style thought, City Of The Living Dead (another Fulci movie from the same era) being a classic example, but House By The Cemetery avoids these trappings, your fully aware of what’s just taken place but the burning question as the credits begin to roll is what happens next? If you allow your mind to think about it, there is a good sequel there because all the doors are left open, leaving the viewer with a deep feeling of helplessness. It was exactly this sort of after thought that drew me towards the Italian horror genre.

If you’re not a particularly strong stomached horror movie viewer this is one you might want to slowly wean yourself into. There are some pretty jumpy moments mixed in with the grotesque gore. And while the movies first death might leave you chuckling the combination of gore and tension as it begins to build up can be too much for some to bear.

As well as being presented uncut, this is by far the cleanest print I have seen of the movie. There are some beautiful grainy scenes that give the movie a real texture. Something else that stood out to me from the movies offset was that title font is different from all the other DVD releases that have been seen in the UK, and now bare a pinkish tinge instead of the usual white titles. This combined with the addition of a deleted scene leads me to believe that these titles are the originally intended ones, while this is fairly small fry to the average viewer this is news I’m sure would appeal to the movies hardcore fans. Other special features include a 17 minute documentary that discusses both the movie and the impact Fulci had to the horror movie genre and more interestingly how oblivious he was to the fact that he had fans across the world, and not just in his native Italian homeland. Other features include trailers, tv spots, and a image gallery. The case inlay offers a double sided cover so you can vary your choices slightly.

The House By The Cemetery is due for release on June the 29^th of Arrows Masters Of Giallo label.

Watch Me When I Kill

Few people really understand the influence of Italian cult cinema upon the world of the popular movie, many do not even realise there was a time that Italy knocked out hundreds of movies a year; I recently enlightened a mind when I explained the term Spaghetti Western, leaving the person in question quite surprised as to the roots of this often used phrase. While the movies of Italy focused on what was popular inAmerican cinema and copied it, seldom do you hear the reverse. America however frequently borrows heavily from Italy, Quentin Tarentino reaches into Italian cinema history to steal aspects for his movies, I think I can draw some reference for everyone of his movies that stems from Italy. So inspired is the director that this year we will see a remake of the Italian classic Inglorious Bastards, a movie he frequently raves about. Also this year we will see another Italian classic get the re-make treatment in Suspiria, originally directed by Dario Argento. The Italians realise talent when they see it, and the need to copy ideas that work; this brings me to the latest Shameless release Watch Me When I Kill (Aka il Gatto dagli oochi di giada, The Cats Victims, The Cat With Jade Eyes), this movies writer/director Antonio Bido was clearly so inspired by the Dario Argento movie Deep Red (Profondo Rosso) that the movie mimics it.

Watch Me When I Kill is a rare delight; it’s one of those seldom seen movies that is often discussed by fans of the Italian thriller genre. The trouble being that those lesser seen or less popular movies suffer terribly without careful preservation. Apparently the movie rather surprisingly was one of the highest grossing Italian movies of the 70’s, but unlike movies like the aforementioned Deep Red was not kept alive by the fans. Shameless Films struggled for months to hunt down the best source material, and get specialists in the field to give the movie some new life. I think this needs some praise as it’s a common thought that companies that buy movies to sell on their independent labels are assumed to be literally chucking movies onto discs willy nilly with little thought about quality. It was all the way back last summer that my contact at Shameless told me they were trying to get some better footage... If you want to be taken seriously in the world of DVD production then look to these guys on how to do a job properly, imagine spending half a year preserving a movie before you even know how it will be received?

Onto the movie, about time I hear you cry. What you have here is an effective little thriller, clearly shot on the hoof but with a reasonable amount of time piecing the story together. With Watch Me When I Kill the movie surrounds a shared secret, something that happened in the past that connects a group of seamlessly un-associated characters. The whole series of events begins with the murder of an old pharmacist one day while working in his store. Nightclub performer Mara (Paola Tedesco) stumbles across the scene of the crime, and by association puts herself in the line of danger. When old flame Lukas (the late Corrado Pani) comes into the picture, he starts to connect all the pieces of the puzzle.

Watch Me When I kill is like a typical blueprint whodunit style thriller (this specific type of Italian thriller has become known as Giallo), lots of random murders, and a whole bucket load of red herrings along the way to keep you guessing the movies killer until the very end.

The movie has dated far more than any Italian thriller I can think of, and I’m not referring to the print quality. It’s clear to anyone with the slightest knowledge of Italian thrillers that director Bido is trying to replicate the power of Argento. What Argento is clever to do though is hide tell tale signs that give indication to the movies age, so that with the exclusion iof fashion his movies could have been made anytime. Bido on the other hand throws ever bit of 1977 culture, and technology he can into the movie, meaning that by 1980 the movie already would have looked quite dated. This is not a digging criticism in fact it gives the movie a little charm, anyone researching late 70’s lifestyles would have a field day here; it’s really quite delightful to watch. When not focusing on the culture aspects Bido rushes around Padua, Tivoli, and Rome like you’re a tourist on a 24 hour break, I wonder how much the landscape will have changed.

There are not any real scares, or moments of fright in the movie; however this does not stop the movie from at times being quite disturbing. Using “state of the art” 1977 technology in one rather long scene Lukas takes his neighbour Giovanni Bozzi to a recording studio to dissect a tape recording of noises played down the telephone to the neighbour. The recording is not too pleasant on its own, but when the various aspects are broken down it gets a little more eerie. A movie could have been concocted off the back of this recording alone, and had you shown any signs of flagging on this movie then this would certainly alert your senses.

The story is pieced together quite nicely, with a good flow of action, mystery and a scattering of romance. For those who love those gritty moments of death, there is quite a healthy body count to keep you amused.

This is not a movie that should have been dubbed into English, it does somehow cheapen the movie, making all the actors come off as being a bit cheesy and just plain wrong, for the time you had a collection of reasonably respected actors and public celebrities, who now seem like amateurs due to rather lax dubbing techniques. Early on in the movie Mara drops in rather casually that someone had tried to kill her, the dubbing artists emotionless words make it sound more like she forgot the sugar. This is not a flaw on the side of Shameless but of the producers of the movies that ordered the dubbed version. It’s worth adding that few Italian movies would make sense in their native tongues, as cast members were often plucked from around the globe with no understanding of Italian, using the much mentioned now Deep Red, British actor David Hemmings was dubbed into Italian, but because vast portions of the original soundtrack were scrapped he was then dubbed back into English; in recent years as more of that movie has been recovered the issues of this have become far more obvious.

Sticking with Deep Red, there is this series of scenes that literally copy the movie with new eyes; shadowed figures, a table of totally random items, and false jumps. Just in case you were starting to think it was all copied, Bido curveballs you with a connection to another Argento movie, Suspiria. Musicians Trans Europa Express burst in with a Suspiria inspired soundtrack. The group did not only rip off Goblin/Argento hits, after the initial smack in the face of obviousness you get something far more subdued, almost dreamy, even beautiful.

Watch Me When I Kill is not necessarily a movie that you watch and become an immediate fan of, it can at times be fairly hard going. I chose to watch the movie twice, and knowing the movies hidden secrets the second time round I was more alert, more involved, and as a result I enjoyed it all the more; what went from pretty average rose a few levels in my opinion.

Special Features:

On Watch Me When I kill you get something quite unusual on a Shameless release, and that’s a very frank conversation with Antonio Bido as he talks about the movie in detail, and allows you through his words to see the movie through his eyes. The director is quick to try and put a halt to any Argento comparisons saying these are coincidental, and that if he copied anyone he was following Alfred Hitchcock. Bido also explains about the impact of the movie on Italian Cinema history, the failure of the stereo soundtrack, and the reason the print quality (now pretty well restored by Shameless) has not lasted well with time. On a nice touch the director also addresses his failures and his regrets.

After their previous commentary track, experts on all things Giallo “The Wilson Brothers” have put together a far more relaxed commentary track allowing you to enjoy move the movie and the text that accompanies it, still however managing to retain their unique sense of humour.

There are two trailers for the movie, both the American and International versions.

An alternate opening credits sequence gives an interesting spin on the movie.

There is a pictue gallery and trailers for other Shameless movies including Strip Nude For Your Killer, Baba Yaga, Torso, Oasis Of Fear, The Designated Victim, and The Phantom Of Death.

The movie is available to buy in the UK from the end of February.

Strip Nude For Your KIller

It’s been a long two months, but the end of October spells the launch of the next Shameless Screen Entertainment movie: Strip Nude For Your Killer (Nude per l’assassino). Made back in 1975 this movie has been sadly elusive in the UK, while overseas it has been an incredibly popular purchase for collectors of the Italian thriller genre otherwise known as Giallo!

My first encounter with the movie occurred two years ago, when against advice I purchased the German X-Rated edition. The movie was quite literally chucked onto the DVD, its imagery sometimes so dark it was hard to see, but most importantly a soundtrack so distorted and poor that thirty odd minutes in I turned my back on the movie. The events so disturbed me that I wrote the movie off as a lost cause, and even ignored a following purchase of US Blue Underground disc. I had to buy it I’m a completist. Upon inserting the Shameless disc I was overjoyed to see the level of preservation that the team had gone to, the lengths of achieving (it’s this preservation process that sees such a large gap between the companies releases) something that looks near on perfect. Even when compared to the Blue Underground disc (who have far deeper pockets than Shameless) the preservation is amazing, the sound is near on modern day movie quality perfect. If there is any real flaw it’s in the dark scenes where the movies age is more obvious with some blue tints to what should be black.

As the movie begins we see a young woman on a doctors table, this is a typical case of the back street abortionist, but not so typical is the sudden death of the woman. The dodgy Doc is straight on the phone for help, and we see two men (one of which being the doctor) lowering the girl’s body into a bath in an attempt to make the death look like an accident. Thinking all is well the Doctor is not expecting to be brutally murdered while entering his home.

A month on and as the petty dramas of the Albatross modelling agency unfold, one of the photographers (a very good Quentin Crisp lookalike) while minding his own business, is disturbed by a visitor. While clearly knowing his visitor, things turn nasty; “You’re spilling my whisky!” he cries, but death and a rather nasty anal assault await our photographer, are the two murders connected? But this is just the beginning, and as the bodies mount up it’s up to newly united couple Magda (Edwige Fenech) and Carlo (Nino Castelnuovo) to crack the mystery.

I’m not going to plead all is good here; to be honest with you the movie does not feature the best of stories, it’s very “Scooby Doo” structured and for the most part leaning in the direction of what I would call bobbins. However, if you love the Italian horror and Giallo movies then of course this is too much of an opportunity to let slip you buy, after all you are talking about the opportunity, to see this movie freely available in uncut form in the UK for the very first time.

The story bounces about a bit, one minute being completely fluid, the next not so much; there is not much development here in its’ storyline or the characters, the characters are so thinly written that you do not really get to the heart of any of the characters. The movies big hero is one minute a little likeable the next minute coming off like a complete psycho, throttling Magda for no apparent rhyme or reason. Magda the movies leading lady, is sadly a little dim and annoying. Then there is the police, the biggest sham of a police force you have ever seen in a movie; when a crime occurs it seems the whole police force pile into a crime scene, nobody stays outside, and certainly none of the police can run.

Unlike a lot of Italian movies Strip Nude For Your Killer was shot entirely in Italian, this needs explaining I guess; frequently in Italian movies the cast are global, in many movies the cast spoke in their own language, or were forced to speak in English, then often dubbed into whatever language was appropriate for the movies audience. The result is that for those a little on the picky side, it’s obvious that this movie has been dubbed into English. The reason for mentioning this is that the person dubbing the character of Carlo has a few issues when saying certain words specifically corpuscles.

For the movies director Andrea Bianchi, this movie is somewhat a masterpiece his career varied from gross out movies to hardcore pornography, here he manages a partial synergy by delivering a pretty gory thriller, with enough nudity and semi-clothed stars to keep his more hardcore adult movie fans happy. It seems that the director was trying to harness a new genre, and while other movies before and after have tried, this is one of the more illicit of the Italian sex thrillers. I mentioned earlier the sort of mish-mash of storytelling and style, for those familiar with the Italian movies Bianchi’s work includes The Nights Of Terror AKA The Zombie Dead, Zombi 3; a movie that touches on the “It’s so bad it’s good” style, similar could be said about this offering.

When not trying to titillate, the movie really goes for the gross out factor, the movies killer likes to undress their victims and tries to mutilate them in some way, one has a breast sheared off, another their testicles, while another makes off lightly just losing their ears, although lightly is a bit tame as the victim still dies. While the cutting is not pictured onscreen the after effects are, and while not being particularly realistic it’s still pretty mean to look at.

Of the movies cast Edwige Fenech always makes for good viewing, the actress was incredibly popular during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s making a recent return in big screen horror offering Hostel 2. Fenech here is sporting an unusually cropped haircut, and looking almost boyish. Bianchi had little time for actors and Fenech is never given any real chance to shine, though still rather nice to look at. I skip over Nino Castelnuovo because you cannot judge his role fairly due to the pitfalls of the characters development, I cannot remember a time I so venomously disliked a movie lead, this is more a criticism of the character than the actor. Who was nice to see however was Franco Diogene as the aging virgin Maurizio, Diogene is possibly best known as the crooked lawyer Yesil in Midnight Express, unfortunately you get to see a little too much of this character.

Of the movies big plus points, the big draw is that you will not ever guess who the killer is, I was on the right lines but 100 miles from the target, and this is the resounding benefit of the movie, it’s great to have a mystery and if nothing else the film delivers that.

Special Features:-

I’m at this time uncertain if the movie will come with a reversible cover as recent releases have, there seems to be no mention of it with the material I received, but in fairness it’s a great buy with or without the cover. The movie has been remastered in 2.35:1 with a 2.0 soundtrack.

But it’s the trailers that really impress here, alongside trailers for existing releases Torso (AKA Carnal Violence), and New York Ripper come trailers for upcoming titles. The Designated Victim is the next due release, a loose remake of Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train the movie will be seen by UK audiences for the first time, and unusually for Shameless releases according to the new trailer will come with special features including an English and Italian soundtrack, fact-track, deleted scenes, and art gallery; they are calling this the Fan Edition. Oasis Of Fear looks simply swinging with a glimpse of Flash Gordon’s Ornella Mutti in the altogether, well almost. Something that really pleased me was the first concrete evidence of the movie Watch Me When I Kill about to appear on the scene. While Shameless also promise Baba Yaga: Reloaded, a special 35th anniversary edition re-edited by the movies director after it was harshly edited upon release. Of course the trailer for Strip Nude For Your Killer is also included.

While personally it’s not my favourite of the Shameless releases, I’m thrilled that their releases has at last allowed me to see the movie, and that they have put so much hard work in the release.

Strip Nude For Your Killer is available from the end of October RRP £12.99.

The Midnight Meat Train

In the 1980’s the name Clive Barker was a name to be reckoned with, his Hellraiser books were not only were revolutionary in their written style, when they made the transition to film that style literally dripped from the screen. The 80’s made way for the 90’s and while the Hellraiser movies were hits, they had become so through the English market; nothing had been that phenomenal a hit in the United States. This was until Candyman, Barkers writing took viewers on a horror tale unlike anything they had seen before. Mid 90’s however the world had lost its interest with Barker, movies like Nightbreed and The Lord Of Illusions took viewers down familiar horror paths, Barker had lost his ability to remain unique in the horror market. But now after ten years in the wilds Barker has returned, and his first movie is a real gem.

In The Midnight Meat Train we follow undiscovered talent Leon Kauffman (Bradley Cooper best known from TV’s Alias) trying to make a name for himself in the world of artistic photography. His photographs are indeed cutting edge but nothing that we had not seen before. A meeting with Gallery owner Susan Hoff (Brooke Shields) gives him food for thought “You were in the right place, at the right time!” she tells him, then finishing by telling him that he does not have the guts to go further. In the middle of the night Leon goes out into the subways to capture the image of fear in a photograph. Disturbing an assault Leon gets just the photographs he needed while saving a young model in the process as she faced a group of young thugs. In doing so however the model boards a train, a train ride that will cost the model her life, for on this train rides Mahogany (Vinnie Jones) a vicious killer who attacks and murders humans like cattle.

Even though I knew this was Clive Barkers big comeback film, under the directorial eye of Ryuhei Kitamura and screenplay writer Jeff Buhler; having seen the trailer earlier on this year I was not sufficiently convinced that lessons had been learned, the trailer looking no different from the average gore filled slasher, but watching the movie was something very different.

Like the very best horror movies, The Midnight Meat Train moves into continuously new ground, one minute it’s one thing, the next it’s another. The wonder of the movie is that you never quite know where the movie is going, and to be honest unlike many others you cannot even begin to hazard a
guess. As I sat watching the movie, my thought on who Mahogany was and why he did these unspeakable acts, soon passed, there was just far too much going on all round. Between Vinnie Jones hitting people’s eyes out with hammers, to these strange dream sequences and more confusing who the dreams actually belong too; there are so many aspects to this story. This could sound like a bad thing, but this is honestly not the case, this constantly evolving, frequently changing story keeps the movie fresh, rather like Barker’s Hellraiser and Candyman did. Around 30 minutes in something really interesting happens between Mahogany and a thug on the train, if at this point you have had any doubts about the movie, particularly fears that it is going in the same direction of other movies, then your mind will be changed, the scale of the situation increases two-fold. And this is only the beginning.

The special effects of the movie are pretty “out there”; they are very good indeed but not entirely realistic, indeed it seems that the production team have gone for something visual above everything else. In one specific scene Mahogany attacks a group of people after a night out, the first victim is struck on the back of the head, with such force the victims eyes fly out while still moving, and a woman’s head is literally knocked off her shoulders, again still moving. Far from realistic bearing in mind that the weapon of choice for Mahogany is a meat tenderiser, but as far as viewing entertainment goes something special, to hear an audience cry out “Oh my God!” and the like is really quite funny.

I’m always convinced there is a strong argument for casting ex sport stars in movies then referring to them as actors, this is not something I approve of; when you see Vinnie Jones as out midnight butcher you realise that for once this was absolutely the right decision. From a standpoint of girth, to the rather unusual way his eyes sink back into his head, Jones looks like the role was created for him. In the first 20 minutes, when he has committed seven murders you look at him and realise he is the embodiment of fear, rather like Rutgar Hauer was in the original Hitcher movie.

The casting of Bradley Cooper as Leon is a masterstroke, if you ever saw Alias, Cooper played Will Tippen, the best friend of Sydney, and the one that in your heart you wanted her to be with, rather like real life he was the loser in love and as a result overlooked. Here he bears a similar resemblance, a failed photographer and a coward that you like as the movie begins, but as he moves further and further through the movie, encouraging all sorts of nastiness you have to look again. By the time the movie has ended he is something so far removed from how he started, but this is not like putting a skinny man in a fat suit, you see him progress, grow, become stronger; and this transition makes him far scarier than Mahogany. Cooper made the movie his own,
to the extent that if the movie was ever remade you would not understand how anyone could replace him.

In the movies passing of the lead title (as the film progresses you are given the opportunity to see events through the eyes of other characters) you focus on Maya, Leon’s Girlfriend played by Leslie Bibb (Iron Man), and Jurgis (Roger Bart – Desperate Housewives, Hostel 2); while both are weaker actors, they effectively need to be, they enter events in the dark, but are quickly put in the firing line. As the movie moves to the third quarter you actually have to ask yourself who is the leading actor, as Maya becomes a one woman army; at this point I addressed whether her acting was weaker deliberately from the offset, as towards the conclusion this was far from the case.

Despite his lack of input, this is clearly a tale from Clive Barker, from the fact that the director has given you this very visual look, where you can see all the textures and there is this wonderfully unique filming style, to the down and dirty horror of the movie, On the basis of this movie expect to see a bold return of the author into the movie industry, and above all... Prepare to be scared.

Taken

All the way back at the end of the 1980’s someone looked at the 35 year old Liam Neeson and decided that he would make the most excellent action hero. Next Of Kin, Darkman, Suspect, The Dead Pool, and Under Suspicion all went in the right direction to shape this career. But then it all went wrong, Neeson started appearing in romantic movies, comedies, and political dramas; the hard man image lost now allowing Neeson to progress as a credible actor. You could argue that this was a good idea, Schindlers List, Rob Roy, Michael Collins and Kinsey all gave the actor some considerable acclaim. Strangely though as the actor moves slowly towards his 60^th birthday someone has decided to return the action mantle to Neeson, and prepare for a bucket load of action blockbusters featuring the actor. Leading the way to towards this new re-incarnation of the actor is Taken a gripping action thriller with more guns and fights than a James Bond movie could ever aspire to.

Taken begins rather preposterously with the 17^th birthday of Kim (Maggie Grace near on ten years above that age), long distant father Bryan (Neeson) arrives to the party clutching a karaoke machine to help his daughter practise her love of singing. In the ultimate dick swinging contest however, Step Father Stuart (Xander Berkeley) produces a prize stallion as the birthday gift from him to Kim. With poor finances in place Bryan can only look on, while ex wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) looks cheerfully on at this brazen show of one upmanship. Bryan is soon given the chance to award his daughter the ultimate gift however, permission to travel to France for a summer of historical study. While he does not want to allow Kim this pleasure, he knows in the pit of his stomach that this will win him back into favour. Bryan takes no chances however giving Kim a state of the art phone to stay in touch with him. Arriving in France, Kim soon finds herself in trouble and the only person she can turn to is her father. As a group of armed men burst into the apartment she shares with her friend, Bryan can only give his daughter the best advice he can to get her help, but painfully he must listen on the telephone thousands of miles away as his daughter is taken.

Abducted, drugged and sold into the sex trade, nobody could have realised that Kim’s father was an ex secret agent, heading for France he is in no mood for discussion.

I’m absolutely mortified that I chose to delay watching Taken by nearly a month after receiving a preview disc, I had not heard of Taken and simply assumed this was some sort of low budget thriller that was not going anywhere. I could not have been more wrong, although for the most part in English this is really a major French movie, with in incredibly big budget.

There are so many thrillers out there that go nowhere, and have no real impact on your emotions. Taken pulls on your heartstrings from the offset, watching a relationship ruined through rivalry; then following with the abduction of a child, surely every parent’s worst fear. Both aspects are given such detail, making the story win you over from the offset. The fact that Kim has been taken to sell into the sex trade makes things worse, there are no pink soft shades in this movie, and it’s harsh, gritty and brutal. As the movie proceeds things get more and more uncomfortable as you are shown the lives of the girls sold in this very way.

Having emotionally won you over, and endeared you to a character that in fairness due to the casting of Neeson in that role a lot of people would find it difficult to warm too; the next of the movies offerings to address is the action. Looking at Taken you cannot help but realise that Neeson was sadly overlooked at some point as a suitable casting for James Bond. Carrying out many of the movies stunts himself, the fight sequences are incredibly well choreographed, think Bruce Willis in Die Hard with an Irish accent. While being the ultimate fighting warrior in the movie, with the ability to snap bones with a single slam; Neeson’s character is very much aware of his own mortality. Understanding that the character as well as the actor is getting on there are no large jumps in chase sequences, it’s all Neeson can do to give chase to be honest, when it comes to jumps the character of Bryan sums up the probability of failure and thinks “Sod it” before moving on to the next best option. Add to this that Bryan is not the usual bullet swallowing action hero, one shot and he knows he is “in a ditch”, instead manoeuvring his way through the movie with nothing more than a sore head and a few flesh wounds.

Where the movie falls down in my opinion is in the casting of the lovely Maggie Grace; best known as the sister from hell Shannon in the series Lost, the casting of the actress to play a seventeen year old is rather like me a man in my late thirties being cast as a schoolboy, and while I’m sure I’d look just grand in short trousers cap and school tie, it would not be what the viewing public would want to see. I can sort of understand the casting, because you need to find someone who after various drug related incidents would look older than their years, and by the end you forget her age; but at the beginning you cannot help but think “What!”

As Taken continues the storyline becomes more and more compelling, zig zagging around between tense storytelling, action, and very real horror; with some wonderful location shooting around Paris, and some great minor roles including an appearance from “Naughty Girl” Holly Valance, Taken movies into first place in my list of thrillers movies of 2008.

Taken is in UK cinemas from September 26^th.