Hey everybody, still going at it! Been a little busy here lately trying to come up with two things: a way to import IMDB information with all of my reviews easily without having to go back and manually code all of the iformation like I used to (which was a pain). So far no real luck with that since all of the projects based around that for wordpress are all dead and IMDB changes dramatically all the time. The other thing I’ve been working on is databasing all of the reviews, splitting them up by genre, rating and contributer/owner reviews. This one SHOULD be pretty easy, but I have to go back and edit every single review posted which is just going to take some time unfortunately. Regardless, still found some time to throw together a few reviews and Jon was cool enough to slip you all one too!
Goodbye Uncle Tom – The mother and father of all racesploitation films, if you can determine it as that. A disturbing but utterly fascinating film about the absolute worst and depraved of humanity getting the better of itself. This is the longest review I’ve written in a while, and Goodbye Uncle Tom just kind of drags it out of you to where you HAVE to talk about it.
Oily Maniac (Review by Jon Jung) – Jon reviews one of the strangest looking films we’ve had here on VC in a while, not to mention obscure as all get out. It’s a Shaw Bros. production, but Kung Fu this is not. A giant slimey monster and tons of breasts bouncing around all over the place – you have to admit, it does sound like a winner! Thanks Jon!
Slime City – From that time and era where New York was so busy turning out these fresh, new and completely low budget horrors. Slime City seems to be one of the last of these low budget classics of a small group of filmmakers who went all out and delivered their humorous and disgusting view of urban living. Slime City isn’t quite on the level of Basket Case, but I certainly did enjoy it and hope others will too!
OLD REVIEWS
Django Kill… If You Live, Shoot! – A very, very strange film that even though I didn’t rate it high nor do I consider it a really great film but it has influenced me over the past couple of years. A strange little piece of the Spaghetti Western genre that really has to be seen to be believed. Expect nothing to do with Django the burly European who carried around a coffin however, there’s no one fitting that description here.
Dead or Alive I: Hanzaisha – The Dead or Alive series still remains a favorite of mine after all of these years, and with Miike making so many classic flicks that have taken up the limelight throughout the years – they are easy to bypass in order to list a few more modern films. The first two in the series however make up for some of Takashi Miike’s greatest work and are absolutely “must see” for any person claiming to be a fan.
Dead or Alive II: Tobosha – Certainly one of Miike’s most underrated, DOA2 often seems to walk that line between pretension and an amazing piece of art – and unlike the later work of Izo; I don’t see any pretension in what Miike does here. Simply a touching and emotionally draining gangster flick that defies the genre so much that it can hardly be considered your average Yakuza movie.
Dead or Alive III: Final – It’s true, for the conclusion to such a fine series of films it was a little disappointing; but it’s still as great as much of Miike’s average film rate (which makes it fantastic by comparison). Definitely a lot different than the previous, and you may say “they’re all different from one another, judging the films next to each other by what the previous did is pointless” – true, but the move away from the quiet contemplation of character and life from both films definitely does do harm to the movie overall – but otherwise its still a great little weird scifi flick.
Anyway, hope everybody is doing well and enjoying these Olympics like I am! A lot of fun to be had! Also hope everyone is checking those forums! C’mon, don’t make me beg! Okay, I’ve already begged a thousand times over, but still… we’ve gotta get some life in there everybody!