Oct
8
Meat Grinder (2009 - Thailand)
Filed Under DVD, Horror, Movies | Leave a Comment
| Meat Grinder |
|
| Year | 2009 |
| Director | Tiwa Maytaisong |
| Actors | Mai Charouenpura Rattanabunlhung Thosawad Duangta Toongkamanee |
| Disc Layers | 1 |
| Source | DVD |
| Image Quality | Excellent |
Meat Grinder is one of those movies where the main character, a woman who murders people and feeds them to her restaurant customers, is so psychotic and morbid that, at first, I didn’t think I was going to be able to sympathize with any of the characters. But that’s not the case at all. In fact, by the end of the movie I really pitied her. She’s had a rough life, and it’s easy to see how circumstances led her to such a disturbed psychological state.
This is a slow-paced, beautifully shot horror movie. Thai director Tiwa Maytaisong turns grotesque imagery into art with vivid colors constrasted against a gritty, grimy background. 
The result is a Hotel-esque movie, but instead of the nihilistic celebration of violence common in American films, we get a sympathetic look at a woman whose gruesome tendencies have been shaped by an unfortunate life. A sort of horrific drama, if you can imagine it. That being said, there’s enough blood, dismemberment, and meat grinding to satisfy the most jaded horror fan.
At the time of this writing, there is no retail version of Meat Grinder available with English subtitles. The DVD I have was subtitled by a fan from the original Thai DVD. The picture looks great - very sharp, colorful, and clean.
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May
13
The Last Shark (L’ultimo Squalo)
Filed Under Action, Movies, Unknown | 2 Comments
| The Last Shark (L’ultimo Squalo) |
|
| Year | 1981 |
| Director | Enzo G. Castellari |
| Actors | Vic Morrow James Franciscus Giancarlo Prete |
| Disc Layers | 1 |
| Source | Unknown |
| Image Quality | Fair |
Somehow this movie manages to be a complete rip-off of Jaws, while capturing none of the excitement that made Jaws such a great film. All the stock characters are here: a handsome guy who wants to prevent the deaths of swimmers, windsurfers, and teenagers, an egotistical guy in a suit who refuses to close the beach, and a fisherman doing his best Robert Shaw imitation. There is very little plot other than the shark attacking various people in short, surprisingly gore-free scenes.
The Last Shark is so clearly a redux of Jaws that, in some countries, it was billed as a Jaws sequel. In the United States, Universal successfully had it pulled from theaters.
After an incredibly cheesy opening, the music is pretty good - typical of 1980s Italian horror and action films with heavy synthesizers and tension-building bass lines. Not John Williams, but reminiscent of the work of Claudio Simonetti and other great Italian composers.
On the copy I have, the letterboxed picture is a little bit jittery, which can be annoying, but the image is not muddy. It has non-removable, non-English subtitles, but they’re white and easy to ignore.
Also known as: Great White, The Last Jaws
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May
7
Hardware (M.A.R.K. 13)
Filed Under DVD, Horror, Movies, Science Fiction | Leave a Comment
| Hardware (M.A.R.K. 13) | |
| Year | 1990 |
| Director | Richard Stanley |
| Actors | Dylan McDermott Stacy Travis Iggy Pop |
| Disc Layers | 1 |
| Source | DVD |
| Image Quality | Excellent |
UPDATE: Hardware is now available in the United States on 2-disc DVD and Blu-Ray. I no longer trade this title.
Richard Stanley’s first feature film is one of those movies that could only have been made in the late 1980s - a visually artistic, post-apocalyptic/science fiction/horror film that has more in common with the films of Ken Russell than it does with The Terminator. Many of us lucky enough to see Hardware during its limited theatrical run became life-long fans of the man who, in 18 years, has really only directed two full-length features.
Long before the debacle of Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau, Stanley’s film about a robot killing several less-than-likeable humans explored the concept of our own unusual creations becoming a threat to our existence. At the time of its release, I remember reading an interview with Stanley in which he claimed to be filming a documentary in the desert when he received word of Hardware’s funding. He had been carrying a wounded friend on his back for a day or so.
Hardware has much of the late 80s/early 90s post-apocalypse style: a washed out orange/red tint to the image, the implication of a Big Brother-type government, a population of nuclear-mutated homeless people, and a pessimistic attitude that everything is not going to be okay. It’s slow and it mostly takes place in a single room. It’s a movie that just wouldn’t work in the 21st century.
The beauty of Hardware lies in the presentation. With a minimal budget, Stanley created an artistic film with loads of surrealism and memorable imagery that manages to be intelligent and absorbing without being pretentious. A dose of gory violence (which initially earned the film an X rating) keeps things from getting to self-conscious. This is, after all, a movie about a killer robot.
There was a time when Hardware was slated for a Region 1 release. Time stretched on and on until eventually it was clear that it wasn’t going to happen. Fortunately, it was released in limited numbers in one or two other regions. In an age of High Definition, the intentionally washed-out look of the image takes a few minutes to adjust to, but then it starts to add to the movie’s dreamlike feel. A great score, a slight bit of philosophy, and a few quirky characters round out the experience.