Cristian-3
Joined Jul 1999
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Reviews14
Cristian-3's rating
I just wanted to say I truly love this film and I do believe there will be a great deal of different opinions on it. My point in this post is that I have read in many places that the English language version of this film was never released and/or it's lost. This is not true at all as the first time I watched it was in English on television, late night during a stay in Brazil, with Portuguese subtitles. The catchphrase of "Je vais en Nantes, Je vais en perm' a Nantes" translated to "I'm going to Toulouse, I've nothing to lose."
The soundtrack is currently available on a fantastic new 2-CD set that replaces the long out-of-print 2 LP set, and includes the song "A Pair of Twins" in English! The LP, though, with its booklet and liner notes and pictures is a tough act to follow. Ah well.
I wish this movie would come out on DVD with both versions and greet a whole new generation of fans. Here's hoping this will happen within our lifetimes, while some of us are still young.
The Young Girls of Rochefort was an ambitious effort that paid off very generously in artistic terms but it was not as great a success in the box-office as Demy's previous "Umbrellas of Cherbourg". The score in "Rochefort" is sometimes a little repetitive but the soundtrack to me is the best one ever for a musical....or at least a French musical.
The soundtrack is currently available on a fantastic new 2-CD set that replaces the long out-of-print 2 LP set, and includes the song "A Pair of Twins" in English! The LP, though, with its booklet and liner notes and pictures is a tough act to follow. Ah well.
I wish this movie would come out on DVD with both versions and greet a whole new generation of fans. Here's hoping this will happen within our lifetimes, while some of us are still young.
The Young Girls of Rochefort was an ambitious effort that paid off very generously in artistic terms but it was not as great a success in the box-office as Demy's previous "Umbrellas of Cherbourg". The score in "Rochefort" is sometimes a little repetitive but the soundtrack to me is the best one ever for a musical....or at least a French musical.
Forget "Terminator 2", forget "Jaws" or "The Matrix" or any of those groundbreaking yet utterly predictable movies. What I am reviewing here is simply one (the other being its sequel) of the most fantastic works of art ever committed to celluloid, a movie of such vision and imagery as to haunt anyone who sees it for the rest of their lives. This is a movie that, if you just happen watch it on tv as a child you will be asking people 15 years later what it was and it will become so dear to your heart you'll have owned a copy in every conceivable format. VHS, CED, LD, VCD, DVD, Phase 4 Plasma crystal...well, in the future. If you see it as a teenager it will leave its mark on you and you might actually refuse to see it again because you will not want your fond memories of this movie wrecked, but I assure you, its magic and power will last a lifetime. One day, when you're no longer young, you will look back at this movie and remember what it was like to really feel alive. The main couple will be young forever on film, forever kissing as if each time was the first time. Young forever will remain the heroes.
And this I appreciate about it: finally a movie with teen heroes who actually are teenagers, not 30 year-old Eric Stoltz-types. Our hero was only 17 when he was picked to play the youthful leader of a motorcycle gang.
1990: The Bronx Warriors (1983)
The year is 1990. The place is the Bronx. In an alternate reality where crime has supposedly risen to such impossible heights that the police no longer attempt to enforce the law in the Bronx, Trash and his gang of Riders fight a corrupt corporation's efforts to destroy gang rule in the Bronx.
By 1990 most of the Bronx was owned by the evil Manhattan Corporation. This unscrupulous organisation was bent on dominating and owning the entire Bronx for the financial gains. They used of force to move people out of their homes. Naturally they needed the government out of their way so they exaggerated the Bronx's crime rate to get the government to give up on enforcing the law and left it up to the Manhattan Corporation to rule the place. However there was a flaw in the plan.
The Bronx may belong to the M.C. on paper but it really belonged to street gangs. In an environment where only the strong will survive, the many gather together to become stronger. Tribes are formed and together they protect their property and take justice into their own hands. And ruling over all is The Ogre.
Yes, that would be Fred Williamson! In the year when this was made it was already considered hyper-cool to have Fred Williamson in a movie. And he is here, yet another reason why this movie is AWESOME! As the Ogre, Williamson totally runs the show and steals every scene that he is in. We can see why other gangs fear him. His mere image imposes respect. He is regarded as a king, as THE King of the Bronx by everyone, friend or foe...only his foes don't get to live long, dig?
It's in this lawless world that we meet 17 year-old Trash. This young men is way wise beyond his years. He has the beauty of youth and his eyes reflect the wisdom of ages. Even older members of his gang respect him as their undisputed leader. And they look to him for answers when members of various gangs start showing up dead.
Enter Ann. She runs into the Hell we call The Bronx, runs straight into Trash's arms. Who is this troubled young woman? Who or what is she running away from? This girl shows up out of nowhere, purposedly trying to enter the Bronx and is attacked by members of a gang named "The Zombies". The Zombies rollerskate around in white hockey gear with large epaulets and they tease Ann before closing in for the kill. She is rescued by Trash and she is eternally grateful to him.
The climate in the Bronx is tense. Although most gangs can share the Bronx as long as no one enters the other's turf, all hell can break loose at any moment. Hell..that's what this place is. Hell.
As two members of Trash's gang are making out in the stairs of a building, a lone mailman makes his way up the steps. He is carrying a long parcel. As he makes his way through the ruined building, one of Trash's men threatens the postman. But, there is something fishy here. The postman turns and dispatches the Rider with shots from a rifle he was concealing in the package. Why, IT'S VIC MORROW!!!
VIC MORROW!! One great underrated american actor! Here he plays a great villain, a mercenary working for the Manhattan Corporation. His name is Hammer. He believes in nothing, he will stop at nothing. His only loyalties are to himself. As Hammer, Vic is what Tom Atkins usually tries to be, but only Morrow can be Morrow. A dedicated character actor, Morrow was killed in California, while filming TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE. I remember the very day, July 23, 1982. Morrow is an interesting casting choice because he truly was a Bronx native. He had been playing heavies since 1955's "Blackboard Jungle", an early JD flick, alongside Sidney Poitier, so by this time he had elevated it into an artform in itself! This was his next to last movie. Before that he had also been in a different italian film with James Franciscus named L'ULTIMO SQUALO. His character's last name in that movie was also Hammer, if I remember correctly.
So now I have explained the plot elements and I will not spoil anything else about this fantastic action-horror movie. The stage is set for the ride of your life in this NON-STOP movie where every minute something new happens. Boy, was I surprised to see BIG APE HIMSELF, Mr. George Eastman as Golan, the leader of the Zombies! He has a great little fight scene with someone in the cast...and I really don't want to spoil anything but it is one of my favourite scenes. The Ogre has a henchowoman named "Witch" who is anything but, unless it's meant to say she's enchanting! Like a superheroine from a Marvel comic book (Not DC....they'd never get it right), Witch is a leather clad kitten with a deadly whip! Trash's right hand man, Ice, looked like a young Steve Jobs. ;-) But everything in this movie is so crazy and hypnotic! The costumes of the different gangs, the ruins of the Bronx...this movie plays like a modern-day fantasy-quest!
The acting is a little uneven but this is to be expected in a international co-production where actors speak different languages and have their lines dubbed in afterwards. Mark Gregory as Trash is simply incredible. In more than one touching scenes he actually cries! The tough exteriour is briefly removed so we can get a glimpse of the real man inside.
Ann is played by Stefania Girolami, daughter of actor Ennio Girolami who is also here as the President of the Manhattan Corporation. Director Enzo Castellari has his usual cameo, in this case as the Vice-President.
This is a movie that is incredible, and its sequel was even better!
1990 i guerrieri del Bronx Also Known As: 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1983)
********** Ten stars out of a possible Five!
LEAVE THE BRONX!
And this I appreciate about it: finally a movie with teen heroes who actually are teenagers, not 30 year-old Eric Stoltz-types. Our hero was only 17 when he was picked to play the youthful leader of a motorcycle gang.
1990: The Bronx Warriors (1983)
The year is 1990. The place is the Bronx. In an alternate reality where crime has supposedly risen to such impossible heights that the police no longer attempt to enforce the law in the Bronx, Trash and his gang of Riders fight a corrupt corporation's efforts to destroy gang rule in the Bronx.
By 1990 most of the Bronx was owned by the evil Manhattan Corporation. This unscrupulous organisation was bent on dominating and owning the entire Bronx for the financial gains. They used of force to move people out of their homes. Naturally they needed the government out of their way so they exaggerated the Bronx's crime rate to get the government to give up on enforcing the law and left it up to the Manhattan Corporation to rule the place. However there was a flaw in the plan.
The Bronx may belong to the M.C. on paper but it really belonged to street gangs. In an environment where only the strong will survive, the many gather together to become stronger. Tribes are formed and together they protect their property and take justice into their own hands. And ruling over all is The Ogre.
Yes, that would be Fred Williamson! In the year when this was made it was already considered hyper-cool to have Fred Williamson in a movie. And he is here, yet another reason why this movie is AWESOME! As the Ogre, Williamson totally runs the show and steals every scene that he is in. We can see why other gangs fear him. His mere image imposes respect. He is regarded as a king, as THE King of the Bronx by everyone, friend or foe...only his foes don't get to live long, dig?
It's in this lawless world that we meet 17 year-old Trash. This young men is way wise beyond his years. He has the beauty of youth and his eyes reflect the wisdom of ages. Even older members of his gang respect him as their undisputed leader. And they look to him for answers when members of various gangs start showing up dead.
Enter Ann. She runs into the Hell we call The Bronx, runs straight into Trash's arms. Who is this troubled young woman? Who or what is she running away from? This girl shows up out of nowhere, purposedly trying to enter the Bronx and is attacked by members of a gang named "The Zombies". The Zombies rollerskate around in white hockey gear with large epaulets and they tease Ann before closing in for the kill. She is rescued by Trash and she is eternally grateful to him.
The climate in the Bronx is tense. Although most gangs can share the Bronx as long as no one enters the other's turf, all hell can break loose at any moment. Hell..that's what this place is. Hell.
As two members of Trash's gang are making out in the stairs of a building, a lone mailman makes his way up the steps. He is carrying a long parcel. As he makes his way through the ruined building, one of Trash's men threatens the postman. But, there is something fishy here. The postman turns and dispatches the Rider with shots from a rifle he was concealing in the package. Why, IT'S VIC MORROW!!!
VIC MORROW!! One great underrated american actor! Here he plays a great villain, a mercenary working for the Manhattan Corporation. His name is Hammer. He believes in nothing, he will stop at nothing. His only loyalties are to himself. As Hammer, Vic is what Tom Atkins usually tries to be, but only Morrow can be Morrow. A dedicated character actor, Morrow was killed in California, while filming TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE. I remember the very day, July 23, 1982. Morrow is an interesting casting choice because he truly was a Bronx native. He had been playing heavies since 1955's "Blackboard Jungle", an early JD flick, alongside Sidney Poitier, so by this time he had elevated it into an artform in itself! This was his next to last movie. Before that he had also been in a different italian film with James Franciscus named L'ULTIMO SQUALO. His character's last name in that movie was also Hammer, if I remember correctly.
So now I have explained the plot elements and I will not spoil anything else about this fantastic action-horror movie. The stage is set for the ride of your life in this NON-STOP movie where every minute something new happens. Boy, was I surprised to see BIG APE HIMSELF, Mr. George Eastman as Golan, the leader of the Zombies! He has a great little fight scene with someone in the cast...and I really don't want to spoil anything but it is one of my favourite scenes. The Ogre has a henchowoman named "Witch" who is anything but, unless it's meant to say she's enchanting! Like a superheroine from a Marvel comic book (Not DC....they'd never get it right), Witch is a leather clad kitten with a deadly whip! Trash's right hand man, Ice, looked like a young Steve Jobs. ;-) But everything in this movie is so crazy and hypnotic! The costumes of the different gangs, the ruins of the Bronx...this movie plays like a modern-day fantasy-quest!
The acting is a little uneven but this is to be expected in a international co-production where actors speak different languages and have their lines dubbed in afterwards. Mark Gregory as Trash is simply incredible. In more than one touching scenes he actually cries! The tough exteriour is briefly removed so we can get a glimpse of the real man inside.
Ann is played by Stefania Girolami, daughter of actor Ennio Girolami who is also here as the President of the Manhattan Corporation. Director Enzo Castellari has his usual cameo, in this case as the Vice-President.
This is a movie that is incredible, and its sequel was even better!
1990 i guerrieri del Bronx Also Known As: 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1983)
********** Ten stars out of a possible Five!
LEAVE THE BRONX!
Some people here may think "No one on this Earth would spend the 16 quid to buy this on DVD". They're partly right. No one but people like me, that is. I have been interested in John Carl Buechler's campy makeup FX since I was first introduced to the notorious "Troll" (1986). I love how all his creatures seem related, be they Trolls, Ghoulies, every creature in TARZAN: The Epic adventures or more recently Watchers: Reborn.
I enjoy reminiscing about the good old days when stop-motion was king and it took the mastery of a Ray Harryhausen to impress an audience.
Stop motion has seen its day. In 1925 grown, mature adults screamed in awe at the screening of "The Lost World", with Willis O'Brien's fantastic dinosaurs. Nowadays a 6 year old cousin of mine will watch the classic "Land of the lost" with its Gene Warren dinosaurs and Krofft productions rubber-suited Sleestaks and say "Everything looks like it's pretend, except the people". (Maybe they shouldn't have mixed 16mm stop motion with live footage shot on 1"videotape).
But even in the pre-"Jurassic Park" days of 1987 which is when this entry in the Ghoulies series was shot the effects looked cheap, the rubber suited monster looked like a man in a rubber suit and the overall effect was pure camp. Bad? I don't know. The movie wasn't trying to be "Jaws" or an innovator on any level.
Although it's the kind of movie that makes some people ask, "who the hell financed this silliness and why?", movies like "Ghoulies 2" have a certain charm to them, a naive charm (even if no muscle).
The plot is your traditional "Let's put on a show to save this place", but with Ghoulies instead of Rooney and Garland. The movie has a strangely familiar beginning. A man running away from hooded cult members. Wasn't this how Halloween 6 started? We are introduced to carny wannabe Damon Martin and his washed out drunken ex-magician uncle (How does that go again? Every kid has an uncle who's a magician). They run a haunted house named "Satan's Den" in a travelling Carnival. A very unprofitable haunted house since Uncley can't stay sober enough to run the business properly, and the public finds the attraction silly rather than scary.
This is an ironic angle. In some way the Haunted House represents movies like this one. The public isn't really scared to go into this "horror" attraction. The rudimentary animatronics, decapitations, electrocutions inside are banal to even a very young public weaned on the very best of horror gore effects in movies and the horrors shown on reality tv all the time. Two very young kids enter the Den by themselves and aren't taken by anything at all they see until they spot the Ghoulies, who decided to inhabit the joint.
A typical 1987 yuppie announces that his company now owns the carnival and that unless the Den shows profit it will be replaced by a mud-wrestling show. The Den however becomes a sensation because the eager public flocks to see the "rats", er, Ghoulies. But everything is threatened again once the ghoulies start killing people.
There is also a insipid romantic subplot, but I don't want to spoil anything. Anyway, this movie stars Mr. Torok the Troll himself, Phil Fondacaro. One of the best small actors of his time, Phil here stars as a Shakespeare-obsessed carny. There is a scene in the first quarter of the movie which I will not spoil for anyone, but it involves Phil and a monster suit. I just really, REALLY wish they had taken this scene a lot further than they did.
We all know it's supposed to be a Gremlins ripoff. The makers knew that too, but I find this entry at least comparable to Gremlins 2.
Ghoulies 3, though, was a lot better.
I enjoy reminiscing about the good old days when stop-motion was king and it took the mastery of a Ray Harryhausen to impress an audience.
Stop motion has seen its day. In 1925 grown, mature adults screamed in awe at the screening of "The Lost World", with Willis O'Brien's fantastic dinosaurs. Nowadays a 6 year old cousin of mine will watch the classic "Land of the lost" with its Gene Warren dinosaurs and Krofft productions rubber-suited Sleestaks and say "Everything looks like it's pretend, except the people". (Maybe they shouldn't have mixed 16mm stop motion with live footage shot on 1"videotape).
But even in the pre-"Jurassic Park" days of 1987 which is when this entry in the Ghoulies series was shot the effects looked cheap, the rubber suited monster looked like a man in a rubber suit and the overall effect was pure camp. Bad? I don't know. The movie wasn't trying to be "Jaws" or an innovator on any level.
Although it's the kind of movie that makes some people ask, "who the hell financed this silliness and why?", movies like "Ghoulies 2" have a certain charm to them, a naive charm (even if no muscle).
The plot is your traditional "Let's put on a show to save this place", but with Ghoulies instead of Rooney and Garland. The movie has a strangely familiar beginning. A man running away from hooded cult members. Wasn't this how Halloween 6 started? We are introduced to carny wannabe Damon Martin and his washed out drunken ex-magician uncle (How does that go again? Every kid has an uncle who's a magician). They run a haunted house named "Satan's Den" in a travelling Carnival. A very unprofitable haunted house since Uncley can't stay sober enough to run the business properly, and the public finds the attraction silly rather than scary.
This is an ironic angle. In some way the Haunted House represents movies like this one. The public isn't really scared to go into this "horror" attraction. The rudimentary animatronics, decapitations, electrocutions inside are banal to even a very young public weaned on the very best of horror gore effects in movies and the horrors shown on reality tv all the time. Two very young kids enter the Den by themselves and aren't taken by anything at all they see until they spot the Ghoulies, who decided to inhabit the joint.
A typical 1987 yuppie announces that his company now owns the carnival and that unless the Den shows profit it will be replaced by a mud-wrestling show. The Den however becomes a sensation because the eager public flocks to see the "rats", er, Ghoulies. But everything is threatened again once the ghoulies start killing people.
There is also a insipid romantic subplot, but I don't want to spoil anything. Anyway, this movie stars Mr. Torok the Troll himself, Phil Fondacaro. One of the best small actors of his time, Phil here stars as a Shakespeare-obsessed carny. There is a scene in the first quarter of the movie which I will not spoil for anyone, but it involves Phil and a monster suit. I just really, REALLY wish they had taken this scene a lot further than they did.
We all know it's supposed to be a Gremlins ripoff. The makers knew that too, but I find this entry at least comparable to Gremlins 2.
Ghoulies 3, though, was a lot better.