I remember seeing the trailer for this one before it hit and I never really felt the urge to see it, mainly because it just looked like a direct knock-off of "The Strangers". Unfortunately, "You're Next"'s release was delayed for about two years so it was a little late to the party, in terms of striking while the home-invasion iron was hot a few years back. Therefore, this flick gives off a strong "been there, done that" kinda vibe.
A group of rich kids and their significant others drive out to their parents country mansion for their anniversary. As they're having dinner, they're ambushed by a trio of masked assailants - armed with axes and a crossbow. From there, we get the usual home-invasion/survival slasher stylings you would expect...
"You're Next" isn't bad, though. It's very watchable and offers up a few decent kills, as well as a congruent mixture of black comedy and some more old-school horror elements. It's not nearly as 'disturbing' or memorable as films like "Inside" or "Kidnapped", of course, but, overall, I dug it quite a bit more than "The Strangers" or it's 2006 French predecessor, "Them".
I'm not really sure what to make of a movie like "The Green Elephant". I found it somewhat entertaining, while at the same time it was a rather tedious and boring mash-up of 'arthouse' and gore flick.
Two Russian soldiers are forced into a military prison cell together - which looks like a janitor's closet with a sewage leak. The one guy keeps babbling incessantly about fucking men and the time he was forced to eat his own feces. As the other guy gets more and more annoyed, his roomie becomes more mentally unhinged, going so far to shitting on a plate (as well as smearing it on himself) and trying to feed it to his cell mate while spouting rapid gibberish. This goes on for about the first 45-50 minutes before they're extracted from the room and basically forced to torture each other to death...
The interaction between the two guys is pretty funny at times, but just goes on for too long. By the end, it turns into a full fledged gore film with cannibalism, man-on-man buttfucking, self mutilation, disemboweling, etc. I'll admit I had no idea what the fuck was going on, but it was suitably nasty in the last 15-minutes or so. Still, there's nothing at all remarkable about "The Green Elephant" as it's pretty dull for the most part. Also, I couldn't figure out if it was suppose to be a 'fake snuff' style of film or not. It was shot like one, but the camera man is never addressed. Oh, well.
If you've seen stuff like "Psycho: The Snuff Reels" or the "August Underground" series, "The Green Elephant" is nothing new or all that 'shocking'.
As much as I enjoyed "Jailbait" for what it was - on a totally minimalist, indie-psychodrama basis - I did kinda feel like it was a little lacking, overall.
A 25-year old is sentenced to a 25 year prison stint due to a 'three strike' felony conviction for vandalism. His cell mate is a middle-age guy serving a life sentence for murdering his wife. Their confined relationship starts off friendly, but takes a bit of a dark turn when the lifer decides to make his newbie bunk-buddy his prison bitch...
That rundown makes "Jailbait" sound a lot more "raw" than the movie actually is, when in fact, it's more of a psychologically charged 'character study' of two prison inmates pretty much on opposite sides of the incarceration constraint. Young, fresh-faced kid and no-parole, lifetime convict with nothing more to lose forced into a tiny, claustrophobic cell together. It's a promising premise and it's execution here is not as 'brutal' as you would think. The movie consists, primarily, of their verbal interaction. The seasoned cell mate is starved for human interaction and wants the two to share the story of their all time worst sexual encounter. The new guy has a hard time engaging in this type of laid back of conversation, seeing as how he's looking at a 25 year stretch on top of now being his cell mate's new prison wife.
I enjoyed "Jailbait" for the most part. It's no "Shawshank", just a total slice-of-life with no real ending, whatsoever, which I'm still not sure if I completely liked. It's hard for me to express my trivial gripes exactly, considering what the film was going for, although I'd say I dug "Jailbait" for what it was. The performances are really stellar (while consisting of pretty much just three people, including the guy's mom), the dialog is entertaining and the tension is pretty gripping at times. I'd compare it to something along the lines of a Gus Van Sant film, as it remains consistently 'mellow', while keeping the tone pretty unsettling. Those who need lots of action should avoid "Jailbait". Lovers of a slow-burn kinda indie-flick might wanna give it a look.
Based on Australia's worst serial killer, "The Snowtown Murders" - aka. The Bodies in Barrels Murders - is the story of John Bunting, a vicious and highly manipulative psychopath who preyed upon and murdered 11 young men around a Southern Australian suburb throughout the 90s. Bunting ended up marrying the mother of a teenager whom he convinced to assist him and his sleazy crew in exterminating those he deemed as gay, pedophiles or junkies. Many of Bunting's victims were found mutilated, usually with signs of rectal torture, and stuffed into barrels inside of an unused bank he had rented.
This film does a phenomenal job of portraying these events in a very dark and unsettling, yet highly character driven mien. All of the performances are tremendous and the desolate locale makes for a very bleak and tragic backdrop. The movie doesn't rely too heavily on all-out on screen violence, although the few scenes of torture and murder depicted are truly harsh and gritty, as well as it's rather brash depictions of pedophilia and incest. There's also some animal butchering on tap.
"The Snowtown Murders" definitely ranks high on my list of strongest serial killer biopics of all time. It's one of those films that will stick with you for a bit. Gotta say, though, it's not for everyone, but if you're cool with "rougher" types of cinema, "Snowtown" comes highly recommended.
It seems these days Eli Roth is doing anything to stay afloat in the rough sea of relevancy. Being a one-trick-pony known for just a few directorial morsels of unabridged mediocrity, rapidly fading into the ether of nearly a decade long time period, he's decided to upgrade his onscreen presence from meer cameo annoyances to leading man status. So he produced and co-wrote a low budget disaster movie that spotlights his cringe-inducing acting "talents", as well as all of the irritating earmarks that comprise his lackluster style.
Some obnoxious douchebag friends are partying in Chile when an earthquake hits and a tsunami is said to be coming. So a bunch of people are crushed by debris and the group of friends have to navigate through a city consumed by chaos after the prison collapses, freeing a bunch of dangerous inmates.
At a certain point, the movie just becomes an awkwardly paced encounter with a bunch of escaped convicts. I just never really got the feeling that it was leading up to anything interesting or important. It all just seemed incredibly contrived and forced. Big earthquake, tsunami, savage inmate opportunists, dead babies. Just whatever it takes to get some semblance of a screenplay together - no matter how ridiculous it seems. And give us a good 35 minutes of partying before jumping ass-first into this arbitrary series of implausable events. Is that Disney Channel's Selena Gomez? Awesome cameo. Couldn't get the Biebs on set? Dammit, Roth! You almost had a MOVIE, here!
Needless to say, "Aftershock" blows. Shitty writing. Shitty twist ending. Shitty CGI effects. Just shit. The only enjoyable thing was Eli Roth is seen NOT talking about "Hostel" for once. You gotta see it to believe it.
"El Infierno" (aka. "Hell") is a pretty engaging cinematic exhibition into the world of the Mexican drug cartel. I'm sure many people have and will argue that this film falls short of the real cogent accuracy pertaining this incredibly admissible subject matter, which, considering a few preferential aspects, I can agree with. Perhaps this movie didn't showcase this activity in the most scrupulous of ways, but as a film I felt it contained a pretty solid story.
After 20 years in the states, a Mexican man moves back to his home town to find it reduced to a corrupt, violence-ridden hellhole. He learns that his brother had gotten mixed up with "a bad crowd" and was killed while he was away, so he decides to start asking around for some details on what happened. It doesn't take him too long to learn that his bro was doing one of the only things a guy can do professionally in Mexico and that's get involved in the world of organized crime. He also gets romantically rapt in his brother's prostitute widow and dealing with her delinquent son when some old friends offer him a job within their crime family circle when the nephew needs some bail money. From there, his immersion into the brutal, yet highly profitable business of drug trafficking forces him to learn the ropes which gets increasingly dangerous as a cartel war intensifies.
After checking this flick out, I'd say it's clear that "El Infierno" is a bit more of a subdued portrayal of the widespread violent crime activity that is ravaging Mexico. This is mainly due to the film's rather "light" tone with occasional humor and possible propaganda tinge. Regardless, I enjoyed the film for it's rather gripping, well-paced story, interesting and well developed characters and depiction of the plundered Mexican landscape, whether it be accurate to some people or not.
There's a few fairly hard-hitting scenes of violence, such as tongue removal and chainsaw torture. Nothing all that standout, though. Plenty of nice, gritty head shots help keep it rolling along.
I'm giving "El Infierno" a pretty sizeable recommendation. On a political basis it's not a perfect film, but it's got a strong story and is pretty damn engaging. Check it out.
