THE OTHERS - Strange how 'The Others' has passed me by over the years, I don't remember watching it before today. It's a classy ghost story, an atmospheric slow burn which relies on lingering unease rather than the jump-scares seemingly more popular a decade on. I liked it - I suppose I was expecting to be a little more drawn in than I was, given its reputation. But it succeeds in conjuring an effective gothic ambience, and I was a little bit moved by the tragic narrative reveal at the end (surprised by my reaction to this, as it was telegraphed a mile off).
TOTAL RECALL - The original. Hadn't seen this one in ages, so felt like dipping in again as my recall of it was less than total and I fancied a bit of wham bam sci-fi action. Of course, there's much more to it than explosions and mutants - as everyone knows, it's a twisty mindbender themed around identity and memory, although it's certainly also true to say it doesn't skimp on ammo and squibs. Paul Verhoeven is an interesting director in that many of his films seem to feature a weird mix of leftish (or at least anti-establishment) politics and triumphal 'hurrah' type violence. I'd love to see him do a really awkward collaboration with Haneke. Anyway, compulsive viewing, slick as hell and pretty much a latter day classic. Watching stuff made around this time does make me feel old though... the thirteen year old Frankie never reckoned on sitting around in his late thirties thinking "wow, this all looks so nineties".
MAD FOXES - Always a pleasure, sort of, to revisit this notorious shitefest. A playboy type who frankly seems like a bit of a knob aggravates some hilarious Euro-bikers when he causes a crash and burn incident. Retaliation involving sleazy rape follows, after which playboy-knob spearheads a martial arts based counter attack at the biker's wake... cue lots of chasing and occasional bloodiness in between dull soft core scenes and horse riding excursions. This is not a sober meditation on the hopeless circularity of revenge. No, 'Mad Foxes' is overripe foulness incarnate and actually manages to live up to the whole 'so bad it's (insert hyperbole)' thing for once. Despite being technically competent, there's so much wrong with it - the acting, the dubbing, the incessant metal-disco soundtrack all conspire to drag the viewer to a movie hell where survival means attaining a slightly delirious, ironic distance from proceedings whilst wearing a vacant grin. It's one of the only schlock movies I get into on the basis of the dialogue and performances alone - so many choice, baffling lines, but one of my faves has to be "we're the masters of the universe!" as delivered by one of the bikers after they disembowel a chambermaid amidst howls of laughter. Some of the biker's dubbing is exaggeratedly coarse and makes them sound like stupid monsters, whereas everyone else sounds like they're speaking to different people in different rooms. I also like the frank approach to ugly male nudity - those bikers sure do like to get their knobs out. A victory for bad taste, but I always forget how the midsection (yep, 'horse riding excursions') drags and makes a 75 minute movie seem a lot longer.
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