John’s Horror Corner: Shakma (1990), another killer monkey movie.
MY CALL: Riding the coattails of Monkey Shines (1988), Shakma is the much more basic (and more violent) approach to cash in on another killer monkey movie. MORE MOVIES LIKE Shakma: Monkey Shines (1988) is the obvious double feature choice, and far superior to Shakma albeit more of a thriller than horror.
Well, Monkey Shines (1988) did well with a killer monkey; Shivers (1975), Poltergeist III (1988) and The Dark Tower (1989) brought horror to tall buildings; and Mazes and Monsters (1982) had fun with live-action roleplaying games. So why not do a mach-up of all three?
Playing a computer-modulated live-action game in their building, Sam (Christopher Atkins; Beaks: The Movie) and his med school classmates wander the hallways after hours with the lights out, armed with flashlights, trying to locate clues to make their way to “save the princess” and win the game. The only problem is that there is one more player they weren’t aware of… after a surgical procedure to control aggression in their test baboon Shakma, the animal went berserk and had to be put down. But no one had the heart to do it. Now loose and super-angry, Shakma prowls the halls with a violent score to settle.
Their medical school professor Dr. Sorenson (Roddy McDowall; Fright Night I-II, Mirror Mirror 2) is in charge of the game and in touch with his players via walkie-talkies. When some players stop answering, he knows something is wrong and (of course) wanders out in the dark to investigate.
When the cast of victims is co-starring with an actual baboon, we don’t expect much on screen violence. That’s the problem with animals in filmmaking—especially larger and more dangerous animals. It’s not like dealing with a well-trained undangerous capuchin in Monkey Shines (1988). So Shakma runs at his victims, maybe jumps at them, and then there’s a body after the fact with its face torn up or throat ripped out. But the gore is good, and Shakma’s raging attempts to open doors is surprisingly intense. It happens often and it’s actually really entertaining.
The acting is okay, the writing is middle-of-the-road for the genre and the time. But it’s fun enough. I certainly giggled every time Shakma sprinted and jumped towards the camera.
I’ll call this just entertaining enough for me not to regret this one-time-watch. The premise sounds fun, and it’s not horrible, but there are too many better movies out there for me to recommend this. This would be best enjoyed with a group of B-movie fans.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode #338: A Knight’s Tale, Rock Music, and Chaucer
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The MFF Podcast is back, and this week we’re talking about A Knight’s Tale. Directed by Brian Helgeland, and starring Heath Ledger, Paul Bettany, Shannyn Sossamon, Alan Tudyk, Rufus Sewell, and Mark Addy (great cast), A Knight’s Tale focuses on what happens when a likable young knight takes his shot at fame and fortune. In this episode, we discuss Chaucer, rock music, and the excellent chemistry of the cast. Enjoy!
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
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John’s Horror Corner: Monkey Shines (1988), George A Romero’s murderous monkey relationship movie.
MY CALL: This relationship and character-driven film feels more like an intriguing mystery than horror in its tense atmosphere. A very pleasant surprise and a big change of pace from most 80s horror. MORE MOVIES LIKE Monkey Shines: Shakma (1990) is the obvious double feature choice and… strangely coming to mind: Misery (1990).
After former college track star Allan (Jason Beghe; One Missed Call) suffers a crippling neck injury in a car accident, he is rendered a quadriplegic. Unable to cope with the dramatic change, his girlfriend Linda (Janine Turner; The Ambulance) leaves him for the very surgeon who saved his life, Dr. Wiseman (Stanley Tucci; The Silence). Likewise depressed, Allan isn’t handling his transition well.
A scientist researching human brain tissue’s effects on capuchin monkeys, Allan’s friend Geoffrey (John Pankow; *batteries not included) is under tremendous pressure to please his shady dean (Stephen Root; Barry, True Blood, Get Out, Bad Milo). After trying to experimentally increase its intelligence, Geoffrey has one of his capuchin test subjects trained as a care companion to tend to Allan at home.
As the film advances we observe a tangle of interpersonal relationships. Trained by Melanie (Kate McNeil; The House on Sorority Row), this adorable care companion monkey is named Ella, and she immediately wins Allan’s heart (along with the hearts of viewers). As Melanie continues to train Ella with Allan, Melanie and Allan grow closer as Ella seems increasingly attached to Allan. Allan’s live-in nurse also comes to form an adversarial relationship with Allan and Ella. And Allan distances himself from his well-intended but mettlesome mother. Meanwhile, Geoffrey continues his research (including sneaking an injection of “brain fluid” to Ella) as his job comes under threat from his dean.
The nurse and Allan are at each other like a cat-hating dogger lover and a dog-hating cat lover. The nurse seems more concerned with her noisy annoying pet bird than with Allan, and Allan clearly appreciates Ella more than his nurse. It comes to a predictable yet satisfying end.
Following the “psychic phenomena” trend of 80s horror, Ella and Allan develop a sort of telepathic link, or so it seems, and Ella carries out Allan’s aggressions for him. But the standout component of the film is its relationships. Wereally feel Allan’s frustrations with his mother and nurse, likely many of us can relate. We we really feel the affections for Ella… eventually turning to fear.
Writer (in part) and director George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead, Knightriders, Creepshow) was an observant student of human behavior in his films. His use of different and various relationships to drive the story is a less common approach that cultivates a mood more steeped in suspense than horror.
This isn’t at all gory or scary or even creepy. Tension mounts for sure, but it’s hardly intense or dreadful—more what you would feel watching a mystery unfold. This film relies instead on a very engaging story which amplifies through its numerous character relationships. So even though it’s not scary or gory, it still feels very mature and entertaining.
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Deep Blue Sea – The Podcast – Episode 27: Burgeoning Romance, Demon Fish, and Decapitations
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Jay and Mark are joined by Justin Gott (mrjustingott) and Pete Conway (@peteconway46) of the The Rambling Ramblers Movie Podcast (@TRRMoviePodcast) to discuss “To the Top. Amen,” the 27th chapter on the Deep Blue Sea DVD. In this episode, they discuss demon fish, prayer scenes in movies, and decapitations. Enjoy!
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Shadow in the Cloud is a fun low-budget throwback creature feature that hopefully will build a large cult following.
Directed by Roseanne Liang, and starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Shadow in the Cloud draws from Gremlin-lore during World War II to tell a story about a Flight Officer named Maude Garrett (Grace Moretz) having an incredibly rough ride inside a B-17 bomber named “The Fool’s Errand.” Not only does she have to transport a mysterious package, but she has to deal with a hostile male crew, and a murderous gremlin hell-bent on taking down the bomber that is also being attacked by Japanese planes (it’s a lot).
The 83-minute film (including an opening cartoon and the closing credits) flies by quickly, and features some truly memorable visuals, and gives us a badass new action hero who front kicks a gremlin into oblivion. Grace Moretz is excellent as Maude Garrett, an flight officer who flies non-armed transport planes across the pacific during the war. Her nightmarish experiences aboard the “The Fool’s Errand” are handled well, and contrary to what the action-packed movie trailer suggests, the first 30 minutes of the movie feature her wedged in a gun turret. This isn’t an issue, as Grace Moretz, puts the film on her shoulders (which are cramped inside the tiny gun turret), and gives an excellent performance that is equal parts badass and paranoid.
To give away more would be a disservice. Just know that there’s a moment in which Maude falls out of the bomber, and is blasted back inside by an exploding Japanese fighter plane (it’s wonderful). Grace Moretz has been kicking the crap out of people ever since 2010, when her Hit-Girl character In Kick-Ass shocked the world, Since then, after solid performances in Let Me In and Carrie, she’s emerged as a badass action hero who looks comfortable hanging on the outside of an airplane, AND kicking gremlins in their faces. Her final brawl with the gremlin is a thing of beauty as she unleashes a brutal barrage on the jerky creature who quickly realizes it messed with the wrong person.
It’s a shame that writer Max Landis has his name attached, as the allegations against him hurt the credibility of the film. However, it helps knowing that Liang rewrote the majority of the script, and the production distanced themselves from the oft-accused writer/director. Also, the IMDb scores and the Audience Score section of Rotten Tomatoes showcase a dispiriting amount of people complaining about the “man-hating” that is supposedly featured in the movie. These complaints are dumb, and not worthy of your time. Why? Shadow in the Cloud is a rollicking film that wants to tell a thrilling story. It doesn’t have an “anti-men” agenda, it has a “badass soldier fighting a gremlin” agenda.
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The Movies, Films and Flix Podcast – Episode #337: First Reformed, Drano and Paul Schrader
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The MFF Podcast is back, and this week Jonny Numb (of the Last Knock Podcast) joined us to discuss the 2017 film First Reformed. Directed by Paul Schrader, and starring Ethan Hawke and Amanda Seyfried, First Reformed focuses on the downward spiral of a minster named Toller (Hawke), who is having a gnarly crisis of faith. In this episode, we discuss barb wire outfits, strategic doors, and drano. Enjoy!
Please follow Jonny Numb on Twitter – @jonnyNumb\
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
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Bad Movie Tuesday: Welcome to Sudden Death (2020), the remake/sequel to Van Damme’s Sudden Death (1995).
MY CALL:A soul-crushing defeat for fans of Michael Jai White and Van Damme. WHAT TO WATCH INSTEAD OF Welcome to Sudden Death: For truly awesome martial arts action, aim for Ong-Bak (2003), The Protector (2005), Undisputed 2 (2006), Blood and Bone (2009), The Raid: Redemption (2011), The Raid 2 (2014), Kill Zone 2 (2015) and The Night Comes for Us (2018); followed by Kill Zone (2005), Chocolate (2009), Skin Trade (2014), Triple Threat (2019), Boyka: Undisputed IV (2016) and Paradox (2017; aka Sha Po Lang 3).
Okay, action movie fans. This is more of a warning than true-to-form review. I am a big fan of Michael Jai White (MJW; Skin Trade, Blood and Bone, Triple Threat, Undisputed 2, Accident Man). And with that in mind, this movie was a soul-crushing experience…
If you’ve seen Undisputed 2 (2006) or Blood and Bone (2009), then you have a good sense of what Michael Jai White can do. Anyone who wants to say he’s getting old (born in 1967)—then check out Triple Threat (2019) or Skin Trade (2014). The man’s still got it! And if anyone has lost a step, it’s the filmmakers, not the on-screen talent. And that seems to be the problem with Welcome to Sudden Death big time.
Early combat sequences are briefly cut and clean, but the overall execution is woefully limited by MJW’s “bad guy” stunt men. After all, a martial arts movie fight is only as good as its worst fighter/stuntman and so, sadly, MJW’s skills in stunt choreography are completely lost in the inability of his costars and crew. And that limitation subsequently results in choppier editing and shorter shots (i.e., only 1-2 strikes per cut). So fans of more technically sound martial arts movies should turn away and save the heartache.
The general filmmaking is “proficient”… but poor, cinematically speaking. Every scene is boring and barely held together, often feeling like an episode of a sitcom when the characters are somewhere big, crowded and away from their regular set (like if a sitcom family went to a baseball game). The writing is likewise incredibly basic to such degree that you’d feel like “nobody speaks like this.” Everything in this movie is a tired cliché executed poorly. As far as action movies go, this is like a SyFy Channel movie-of-the-week.
The only saving grace is that I get to see MJW star in something again. But his abilities have been squandered and now I fear his chances of landing lead action roles will have only worsened.
Most of the fights are lame timewasters (by MJW standards), but the locker room fight was the one that was decent. It’s fun to watch. But again, if you’re a MJW fan, it’s incredibly weak compared to Undisputed 2 (2006) and Blood and Bone (2009) when it comes to combat photography, visible technique technical combinations, complexity and overall execution. Moreover, there are no eye-grabbing stunts.
On a technical level, the fights are better than Sudden Death (1995). However, in Sudden Death (1995) the action photography, scoring, editing and stunts all made for a more impactful and fun fight scene experience. You just can’t beat fighting a woman in a penguin mascot suit in the kitchen. Sure, MJW fights a tough female fighter. But like MJW, her skills are squandered by the poor action filmmakers behind and around the camera.
Not since Scott Adkins in Hard Target 2 (2016) has a Van Damme-less Van Damme sequel been so crassly yet delightfully cashed-in upon. And advertised and titled as a “sequel/remake” to Van Damme’s Sudden Death (1995), this takes place during a basketball game. Is there sudden death in basketball? Is there any mention of Van Damme’s heroic exploits in 1995? What’s the connection? This movie is not good. It’s bad. Very bad. Sorry, but first-time action director Dallas Jackson (Thriller) does a lame job. Clocking in at a brisk 80 minutes… it couldn’t have felt longer.
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Minari: One of the Best Films of 2020
Grade – A – Minari is an excellent film that hopefully will connect with a larger audience during awards season. I’d love to see it get a Best Picture nod at the Academy Awards.
Directed and written by Lee Isaac Chung, Minari is one of the best films released in 2020, and it totally deserves its 100% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes. The semi-autobiographical film set in the 1980s, focuses on a family moving from San Francisco to Arkansas (it has great dirt), so they can own land, own a double-wide trailer, and achieve their own “American Dream.” In San Francisco, Jacob (Steven Yeun) and Monica (Han Ye-ri) worked as chicken sexers (they sort them by their gender), which provided a steady income, but wasn’t enough for them to save or improve their living situation or give their kids David (Alan S. Kim) and Anne (Noel Cho) a chance at going to a college without accruing maximum debt. So, they pack up, and move to Arkansas in hopes of starting a farm. After a rough start, Monica’s mother Soonja (an excellent Youn Yuh-jung) moves in, and things start to get super interesting as relationships strain and strengthen as the family gets used to living in the Arkansas country.
Problems arise as the thrifty Jacob refuses to pay money to dig a proper well, which forces him to dig speculative holes that leave him unable to lift his arms high enough to take off his shirt. Since these holes can’t be relied upon to keep water running, he starts watering his crops by illegally using city water in the late-hours of the night. Refreshingly, he’s never caught, and the drama comes from the marital strain between Jacob and Monica, who are at justifiable odds over the move. What’s nice is how their troubles feel relatable, and neither one is villainized as they struggle to connect in their new surroundings. Another welcome element is how Chung draws from his experiences living in Arkansas, and doesn’t villainize the locals who are occasionally ignorant, but never outright malicious towards the newest town residents.
The highlight of the film is the relationship between grandma Soonja and young David. David doesn’t like Soonja because she smells Korean (even though he’s never been there), and doesn’t act like a traditional grandma who should be coddling her grandson. Instead, she loves watching wrestling, drinking Mountain Dew, and planting minari crops alongside a local creek. Eventually, the two bond and form a nice duo that give us some of the best moments of 2020. One of the highlights revolves around Soonja warning David about throwing rocks at snakes while they’re working the minari crop by the stream. She tells him that it’s better to see the snakes, instead of being surprised by them, which is pretty great advice.
What follows is a lovely film that is patient, memorable and very likable. The performances by the cast are all around excellent, and the standouts are Youn Yuh-jung and Will Patton, who plays Paul, the local farm hand. It’s neat watching them break free from boring stereotypes (stock Grandma, strict christain), and provide welcome humanity to characters who are 100% unique and likable.
Minari is an excellent film, and I totally recommend you check it out whenever you get a chance.
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You can download or stream the pod on Apple Podcasts, Tune In, Podbean, or Spreaker (or wherever you listen to podcasts…..we’re almost everywhere).
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The MFF podcast is back, and this week we’re celebrating 2020 cinema by handing out 16 Random Awards to movies such as Minari, Tenet, Get Duked!, Sh!thouse, and Never Rarely Sometimes Always. The Random Awards are an institution here at MFF, and we went big (and very random) for its 10th anniversary. In this episode, we discuss monster explosions, turtle expeditions, hungry henchmen, and out of control vans.
If you are a fan of the podcast, make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening, and hope you enjoy the episode!
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Deep Blue Sea – The Podcast – Episode 26: Shark Communication, Floating Bread, and Stuffed Crust Pizza
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Jay and Mark are joined by Paige (@gaytaylorswift on Twitter) to discuss “Deep-Fried,” the 26th chapter on the Deep Blue Sea DVD. This might be the most infamous moment in the film, as Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows) strips down (very gratuitously) so she can electrocute a shark that wants her, and her research destroyed. In this episode, they discuss shark communication, James Remar, Komodo, and 2 Fast 2 Furious. Enjoy!
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Movies, Films & Flix 