Log: week 41 / 2021

A neat little mystery with minor drama and folklore elements. Fever Dream doesn't really stick to a simple genre constructs though, which is sure to hamper its broader appeal. If you're looking for a straightforward mystery/thriller (or even horror) film, then you're clearly barking up the wrong tree.

Better than expected. I had little hopes for a Melissa McCarthy-led spy flick spoof directed by Paul Feig, but this one turned out to be quite fun. It's certainly not the most original of concepts, gladly plundering the James Bond franchise for ideas, but the cruder comedy and solid casting choices made a big difference.

This was a fun surprise. An early Akiyuki Shinbo OAV that doesn't really bring anything new to the table, but ends up pretty entertaining thanks to the splendid animation and the goofy comedy. It's certainly not up there with his very best work, but the baseline quality is well above par.

An adaptation of Jules Verne's famous book. I think I read it in my teens and liked it quite a bit, the film adaptation is a different story. Even though there's a star-studded cast and the film no doubt had a decent budget to work with, Verne's adventure end up a bit too cheesy-looking, not at all what I imagined when I read the book.

When people buy a house in a horror film, you can bet your life it's going to be haunted. Girl on the Third Floor has a pretty plain premise, but with a house that oozes slime and spits out marbles there are some novel touches. It's a shame director Stevens never quite manages to tie everything together.

A goofy and ridiculous Woody Allen comedy. I've mostly seen dramatic/romantic comedies from Allen so far, so I was quite curious to see how he would fare making a more straight-forward comedy. The result is a very typical Allen film really, one dominated by his typical cynical and nervous ramblings.

Leste Chen's latest is a neat little mystery/thriller. A film with a pretty farfetched story, with enough twists and turns to upheave the entire first half. Certainly not something everyone is going to appreciate, but proper production values and Chen's delicate direction buy Home Sweet Home a lot of credit.

Destry Rides Again is first and foremost a romantic comedy, shoehorned into a western setting. The nice thing is that it lacks the usual western machismo I dislike so dearly, turns out that isn't quite enough to make a film like this enjoyable. It's slightly better than most westerns I've seen, but not much.

The first half of Pavel Khvaleev's latest film echoes Saw and Martyrs, it ends up being something entirely different. Saying more would spoil the fun, just make sure you don't go in with the wrong expectations. The first half is solid genre fun, though not quite up to the standard of Khvaleev's previous work. The second half is completely bonkers and elevates the film well beyond standard genre fare. A dark, diabolic and unrelenting descent into madness, well recommended for those who like their horror films a little different.

A different kind of prison drama. There are no fighting inmates here, no smuggling, no rape, no protests. Instead, Sai serves a weird OCD-like prison utopia, where life is pretty good for the prisoners, even though they have to follow a plethora of rules, and they're obviously still robbed of their freedom. The result is a very agreeable drama with light comedy touches.

You don't get too many Swedish (or Scandinavian for that matter) comedies, so I was curious to see how To Go Ashore would turn out. The film was advertised as an absurd comedy (and that it is), sadly, the performances are pretty horrendous and the comedy itself is rather one note. Watching this, it's not difficult to understand why there aren't more comedies being produced over there.

A peculiar little film. I guess you could call it a British stoner comedy, though there isn't too much overlap with its American counterparts. The leads are more punk-inspired, somewhat grittier and cruder. The comedy isn't so obvious either, though their little countryside adventure certainly isn't the most serious of stories.

When the US started making contemporary hip-hop dance flicks, China and Hong Kong were quick to follow. Stephen Fung was a good fit for this type of film, not in the least because China loves to infuse a little martial arts into its dance routines. The result is a pretty basic and predictable genre film, with some nice dance scenes near the end.

Another Lang noir. There's a bit of a disconnect in my brain between the Lang making silent epics like Metropolis, and the Lang making noirs in the US. A film like Scarlet Street certainly feels a lot less special, it's a typical genre flick that does little to set itself apart from its peers. That said, it's far from the worst noir I've seen.

Horror cinema has dealt with some weird and outrageous murderous objects throughout the years, but a pair of jeans is certainly a novel one. The premise of Slaxx is quite intriguing, Kephart has the comedy part down too, but the horror bits are clearly a lot harder to navigate.

The Shaw Bros are best known for their martial arts output, from time to time they also dabbled in other genres. Since a couple of years their horror films are gaining cult notoriety, though I can't say they're on the same level as the more infamous Shaw productions. The Oily Maniac is probably the most famous one of the bunch, so it was time to give this one a whirl.

Another film from the Amazon/Blumhouse deal. And another tepid horror film. I haven't been following their output too closely, but random sampling hasn't resulted in anything good so far. These films are all very basic genre flicks, lacking the love and attention needed to elevate them.

Now that the pro cycling seasoned is official over, I figured it would be nice to give this film a go. Turns out this isn't really a film about cycling, I even wonder if director Yates ever watched an entire cycling classic/stage. Breaking Away is really a coming-of-age drama about a boy who loves to cycle.

Booked as a horror film, but it's more of a core thriller with very slight horror touches. It's probably the topic (anatomical research) and the setting (dissecting tables and cold medical facilities) that give off some horror-like vibes, just don't expect anything too gross or horrific. In that sense, it would make a pretty solid double bill with Tsukamoto's Vital.

Three Men and a Baby is a film that really didn't need a sequel, but since the first one turned out to be quite successful, a follow-up was inevitable. And so the baby became a young toddler, which gives the makers an excuse to revisit the same premise. The result is even worse than the first one.

After a relatively long hiatus, the V/H/S series is back, reincarnated by Shudder. Not much has changed since the last time, several found footage shorts are loosely tied together by a central segment. Each director was given carte blanche, the only unifying factor is the found footage approach.

An odd mix of genres and elements. Blood Red Sky is a plane hijacking flick that mixes in vampires. To make things even weirder, the vampires act more like zombies, so what you really get is a zombie flick in a plane. Not sure how director Thorwarth managed to sell the concept, but he seemingly did get a decent enough budget to turn his script into a film.

A pre-Godzilla, and so pre-Kaiju film from Honda. Honda's main draw has always been his miniature work, which still comes in handy when doing a war flick. Without the Kaiju cheese though, it's not really the same thing. Eagle of the Pacific is a more serious take on the Pearl Harbor attack.