The Alien Factor (1978)-Don Leifert (1)

Director: Don Dohler

Stars:  Don Leifert, Tom Griffith and Richard Dyszel

Genre: Horror | Sci-Fi

MPAA Rating: NR

Running Time: 80 Mins

Tagline: None



REVIEW

     If you love cheesy sci-fi / horror films that serve no purpose other than cause unintentional laughs, then grab the popcorn and find a comfy couch, because you are in for a treat. The Alien Factor is your typical “shoe string” budget film that stars a bunch of unknowns who can’t act for beans; but that’s ok, we are not interested in good acting…or are we?  Anyways, I promise you that after reading this review you will have a sincere and thorough summary that will leave you decided on whether or not you want to view it.

The film begins with the crash landing of an alien ship containing live specimens for an alien planet Zoo. After the ships’ crash, the specimens escape, and begin racking up a body count. The sheriff and townspeople start scratching their heads in confusion once they find the bodies. Many of the bodies show signs of progeria (a rare age accelerating disease) which makes little sense, because it only affects young children and not adults. But the confusion gets clarified when we are introduced to a scientist that reveals that the citizens are being murdered by ALIENS!!! OH NO!  

Later on in the film, we see the mayor and the scientist finding the remains of the ship. The scientist is later revealed to be an alien as well, but a good one, here to help catch the one that are on the loose. I have to say, for me, this movie was crap. The only redeeming value I got was unintentional laughs. The film can be enjoyed if you have no expectation and are open to just watch and not criticize. Also, the effects in this movie are downright awful, the latex or whatever material they decided to use for the alien looks cheap and underdeveloped.  Now, I know I mentioned earlier, sarcastically, that the acting doesn’t matter, but let me tell you a little secret…it does matter; the acting in this movie makes Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan look like academy award winning actresses.  So with that said, this movie is nothing more than a cheap attempt at making an alien invasion theme film. However, I will admit, that I did enjoy the crap in this flick, even if at times I was snoozing off or just bored to death.  So as a conclusion,  I leave  you for homework to the decide on whether or not you will purchase or rent this flick.

DVD

The only reason I saw this movie was because it came in the “Sci-Fi Invasion 50 Movie Pack” from echo-bridge. If you are interested, you may click the link to buy the box set above, which will direct you to Amazon. I have seen most of the movies on the box set, and the vast majority of them are B-movies

VIDEO

Like the majority of movies on this box set, the video quality is pretty bad. Curious, because the box set claims the movies have been remastered, well that doesn’t seem truthful, because the source looks like it came from a 3^rd or 4^th generation VHS copy.  I don’t mind the bad quality, these movies don’t deserve to be remastered; just don’t advertise it as such.

AUDIO

Just like the video, the quality of the audio is atrocious. At times I had to raise the volume to high on my speakers to understand what they were saying.

TRAILER 

Dead Men Walking (2005)- Bay Bruner (2)

Director: Peter Mervis

Stars: Bay Bruner, Griff Furst and Chriss Anglin

Genre: Horror

MPAA Rating:  R (strong pervasive violence and gore, language and some sexuality)

Running Time: 82 Mins

 

 

I will admit that I am a junkie for Zombie movies. I have perhaps seen every zombie movie in the book. From the worst of the worst ( Zombie Nation, Zombie Holocaust) to the best of the best ( Dawn of The Dead,  Night of The Living Dead) I don’t know what it is about them that gets me to watch them. Perhaps it’s the combination of gore and the post-apocalyptic feel this movies sometimes have. Whatever it may be, I just know I love Zombie films. However, I cannot say that entirely for “Dead Men Walking” a film that requires a lot suspension of disbelief. 

                The opening sequence of the movie sets the record straight of what we are supposed to expect: tons and tons of gore! In this same opening sequence, we witness a man going insanely berserk as he attempts to kill off a couple of zombies inside his house; unfortunately he gets bitten by one of the zombies, gets blamed for killing innocent civilians, and is sent to jail. In jail he begins to transform into a zombie, but not without infecting a few before he changes to “the living dead”. Shortly after he begins to eat inmates, those same inmates bite others, and well you get the idea. It is later explained that the virus was intended for bio-warfare (how original, no?)

      The film wasn’t horrible, just didn’t deliver anything overly special, aside the tons of gore. I felt in some ways the creators could have done a better job with the setting and theme. I do give credit for some originality (the idea of zombies in prison) though that originality quickly fades as soon as you see the horrible acting from the majority of the cast. I  honestly would not recommend buying this flick, perhaps renting it, but not buying it.

Saw (2004)- Carey Elwes (3 ½ )

Director: James Wan

Stars: Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell and Danny Glover

Genre: Crime | Horror | Mystery

MPAA Rating: R (strong grisly violence and language)

Running Time: 103 Mins

Tagline: "Let the games begin"

Synopsis:

{According to IMDB}

"With a dead body lying between them, two men wake up in the secure lair of a serial killer who's been nicknamed "Jigsaw". The men must follow various rules and objectives if they wish to survive and win the deadly game set for them".

************** WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS************************

                                      

I remember as if it were yesterday, the reaction I had when the final twist to the film came up; it had been a while since a film had shocked me so much. Since the film was so shocking, I will have to say that If you haven’t seen Saw I recommend you stop reading this review and go rent or borrow the movie from someone NOW!. If you have not read the disclaimer, I will mention it again; this review is going to contain plenty of spoilers, so keep in mind that you have been advised.  This review has been written mainly for those who have seen the actual film before and just needs a better understanding of it…or if you just don’t care about twist endings.

Two men wake up in an abandoned bathroom. Both men are strapped with shackles on their ankles. They have no clue how they arrive in the bathroom.  The first character is Adam, a man in his late 20’s, who we later find out is a free-lance photographer contracted to take pictures of the man in front of him.  The man in front of him is Dr. Lawrence Gordon, a surgeon who also has no clue why he is in that room.  In between them is the body of a dead man, who shot himself in the head out desperation...or that is what they want the viewers to think. The clues they have to escape lie in a two audio tapes that they find in their pockets. The objective is for Dr. Gordon to kill Adam before six, if he doesn’t comply, then his wife and daughter will die. The man responsible is John Kramer (the corpse in the middle of the room that is actually not dead.) he finds pleasure in placing victims in his sadistic games of survival. His philosophy is that people don’t appreciate life until they see death up close. What is his motive? He has Cancer, yes, he had nothing better else to do, Monopoly just didn’t do it for him. So, with this we have the beginning of the film Saw…how interesting…no?

THE TRAPS OF SAW

Now that we have the premise (that most people know by now) let’s get into the individual traps of the film, and let’s see how plausible they can be in the real world. I will rate them on a scale of 1-5

1: Not Believable At All

2: Not Very Believable

3: Somewhat Believable

4: Pretty Believable

5: Very Believable

TRAP # 1- REVERSE BEAR TRAP

Amada Young is a drug addict that doesn’t value her life, and for that she is placed in one of jigsaws games. Like the picture, she has a sort of bear trap around her face, and she has limited time to find the key to free herself from it. If she doesn’t find the key on time then the mechanism on the bear trap will trigger, and her mouth will remain permanently open…and thus death will inevitably occur. The key to the trap is inside the other cellmate.  He seems to be dead, but he is just knocked out from an opiate that Jigsaw injected him with. The only way for Amanda to free herself is to stab to death the other man and find the key inside his body. She eventually does find the key and manages to free herself on time.   

Believability:  4.

TRAP # 2- RAZOR WIRE

  A man named Paul is placed naked inside a cage filled with barb wires.  The objective of his game is to find the path along the razor wires to reach the exit of the room. He is being given 3 hours to make it out of the room.  Unfortunately he does not make it out; he bleeds to death from the cuts produced by the razors

 Believability: 5

TRAP # 3- THE FLAMMABLE JELLY

 Meet Mark, a man who had fakes an illness for personal and financial gain, he finds himself in one of Jigsaw’s games. He was placed nude in a dark room with broken glass covering the floor, all he has is   tape telling him that there was a slow acting poison in his blood and the antidote is in a locked safe beside him. He had to find the combination to the lock which was hidden amongst thousands of numbers scrawled on the wall. He was also supplied with a lit candle and a box of matches, so as to be able to see in the pitch black room. Unfortunately, he was also covered in a flammable substance, so if he made once false move, his body would become alight. While searching for the combination, he accidentally moved too close to the flame and was entirely incinerated.

Believability: 5

TRAP # 4- THE DRILL CHAIR

As Detective Tapp became more obsessed with the Jigsaw case, he eventually finds one of the secret lairs of Jigsaw. With him is another Detective.When they arrive they find a man strapped to a chair, and two power drills are aimed close towards his temples. Jigsaw is about to be arrested by Tapp before the drills become activated the only way to deactivate it is to find the key inside a box, in the box is countless keys, and very little time. One of the detectives, Detective Sing, did not know which key was the necessary one needed to unlock the neck brace, and instead shot the drills, deactivating those moments before reaching  the victims head. My problem with this trap is that the detectives make it just on time to witness a game, and Jigsaw manages to somehow know that the detectives are going to be there on time…I don’t buy it, sorry.

 Believability: 3

 

TRAP # 4 -THE QUADRUPLE SHOTGUN HALLWAY TRAP

In case of emergency, jigsaw placed four double-barreled shotguns suspended from a ceiling in a hallway, each connected by a tripwire strung across the floor of the hallway. If someone were to cross the string, then the wire would pull the triggers and thus the four shotguns would go off simultaneously, blowing the victim to pieces. In this case, the victim was Detective Sing, who was chasing Jigsaw through his warehouse in an attempt to capture him.  While chasing him he passes through the tripwire, and sets of the shotguns and his head is blow up. While is still don’t buy the whole thing of the detectives arriving in the lair and finding a jigsaw game taking place, I can buy jigsaw being cautious…but even so, if a victim where to pass the wire and activate the guns, he would have to do it forcefully…and Detective Sing does it slightly. The only possible theory is that the wire is securely tight to the trigger of the gun…so even a slight move can trigger it.

Believability: 4

THE FINAL TWIST

After trying to find a way out of the bathroom, Dr. Gordon sees that there is no time left, and that the saws won’t cut of the chains, he ultimately decides to saw off his own foot. After doing so, he reaches for the gun in the middle of the room and shoots Adam in the shoulder.  The man who was thought to be Jigsaw was in fact part of the game as well; his name was Zep, and orderly at Dr. Gordon’s hospital. Adam survives the gunshot and kills Zep. Adam tries to find the key inside the jacket of Zep, instead he finds another recording explaining that Zep had a slow acting poison in his system and only jigsaw had the antidote, so his options were “limited”. I emphasize limited because even if he was poisoned, I would have tried finding someone specialized In poison…that just me.

Final Thoughts

The movie may in fact have a list of flaws, but compared to the subsequent sequels, this one stands out as the best in the franchise. The biggest complain the film has is the acting. The acting in the first saw is pretty laughable, I will admit that, but keep in mind that this film wasn’t intended for theatrical release. Shot on a mere 1 million dollar budget, the crew did the impossible to shoot the entire film in just 15 days. So in all, I give the creators and crew kudos for being dedicated to their work.

                             

I have owned Saw so many times on DVD that I have honestly lost count. I had the theatrical cut released in 04, the special unrated edition released in 05, and I even re-bought the unrated edition just because it was released in a nice box set.  So let’s just say that I have bought Saw various times only because of cover art or special features.

Video

Since saw was a low budget film, I don’t hold too much against the film’s picture quality.  The Blu-ray presents the movie in a remastered 1080p. Personally, I see no difference from the DVD to the Blu-ray.  Even if some scenes do look a bit sharper I still wouldn’t consider it better than an up converted DVD. 

Audio

On the other hand, the audio is very impressive, boasting a 6.1 DTS ES surround sound. All the sounds in the movie sound amazing in this Blu- ray, everything from droplets of blood, sounds of machines, gun shots, etc.   

ENDING OF SAW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OHFXOByYRM&feature=related

The Auteur Theory (1999)-Alan Cox (5)* { Top 250 # 11}

Director: Evan Oppenheimer

Stars:Alan Cox, Sean Gunn and Daniel Cantor

 Genre:  Comedy

MPAA Rating: Not Rated

Running Time: 77 Mins

Tagline: "They all wanted final cut -- until they got it  "

Trailer provided by Video Detective 

I have said time and time again that I am extremely picky when it comes to comedies. I like my comedies to be smart and witty, to have something fresh on the table, and overall- to entertain me. Now, that is not to say that I don’t like goofy comedies. I actually have seen and liked some really bad comedies (Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, Freddy Got Fingered) But most of the time I like intelligent comedies. The Auteur Theory is a rare delight, that actually when beyond my expectations; I didn’t expect this independent film to be so remarkable.

The Auteur Theory is about George Sand: a documentary filmmaker that is hoping to make it big in the American film industry. But he needs a budget to make his dream in film a reality. For that he goes to BBC to get approval from a group of judges, who will hear his story, and decide whether to grant him the money he needs for his project. The film he has in mind is about a filmmaker making a film in a film festival, where other contestants are competing for the award of “best filmmaker of the year”.  So in essence it’s a film within a film.  The mystery thickens when each of the contestants gets killed one by one after their film is screened.  Sand narrates and stars in his own film, investigating the murders, emphasizing that only he knows the mind of a true filmmaker, that it takes a filmmaker to trap another filmmaker...Ok you get the picture.

What makes this movie funny is how it borrows and makes homage’s to other filmmakers. Such filmmakers like: Quentin Tarrantino, Spike Lee, and even BATMAN (I know he’s not a filmmaker, but they make references to the bat). Each of the contestants films are actually funny and cheesy, but are made so on purpose, to demonstrate how much of an amateur the filmmakers really are. For someone like me (who loves filmmaking) I was pleased with this film from start to finish.  The only complaint is that I wish it wasn’t so short (running at 77 min)  

I literally recommend this movie to anyone who is getting into filmmaking. While it isn’t a serious movie, nor it isn’t a film that teaches about filmmaking per se…it does however show a comedic side to the struggles of beginners in the film industry. Now, if you want to see the movie I would suggest buying it off Amazon or EBay. I had a hard time finding this in stores, for many years I only owned a copy I recorded of Showtime (The channel where I first saw the movie)  I don’t think Showtime airs this movie anymore, I am not even sure the channel still exist, I wouldn’t know I don’t have cable.  But anyhow, buy the movie, you will not be disappointed, I promise, if I am wrong you can leave a comment below with all the love.

The Original Faces of Death Part II (1981)- Michael Carr

Director: John Alan Schwartz

Stars: Michael Carr

Genre:  Documentary | Horror


MPAA Rating:  X


Running Time: 85 Mins

Tagline: "When Make Believe Is Just Not Enough"

Synopsis:

{According to IMDB}

This movie continues in the same vein as F.O.D. 1 with short scenes of death related material. Mortuarys, accidents, police work are filmed by TV crews and home video cameras. Some of the material are most likely fake, some not as likely

This sequel is practically the same thing as the first film; showcasing scenes of murder, accidents, shootings and executions. The film has the return of Dr. Francis B. Gross: the crazy doctor who is mostly narrating and giving his philosophy on the taboo subject of death and afterlife.   I must say that II actually find it humorous hearing this guy narrate the film. The way he actually tries being  ”serious “and “educational”  is quite laughable. But I still give credit to the creators of this franchise. I give them credit for making this hoax look authentic. I said it in my previous review that I really don’t blame the director for presenting this as a real documentary. People tend to be way to curious on  how accidents and murders took place…keep in mind that one way or another this will eventually happen to everyone…and that is: Death.

This time around Dr. Gross (curious name no?) clarifies to the audience, that his views on death have long since changed.  For a short period he talks about how different cultures view the matter of death, like in India where they burn the body of the deceased. This custom is very common in India. The reason for burning the body is due to the belief that the soul is trapped in the brain and the only way to release it is through burning the cadaver. Some of the relatives will shave their head and bathe in a river as a form of condolence for the passing of the relative. That scene in particularly made me take this film a bit more serious than the previous film.   

The rest of the picture involves random death scenes, most of which (in difference to the 1^st film) is mostly all real.  The only scene I noticed that was fake was a shootout scene at a drugstore. The various angles in that scene made me question the authenticity of it. All the other deaths, to my knowledge, are real and taken mostly from stock footage.  The most brutal of them all is the scene involving the clubbing of seals; I was shocked at how inhumane these individuals were at doing such atrocity.  There is also footage (which was shown live) of a boxing match, where Johnny Owens gets defeated (and killed) in the ring. That whole footage is real because it was televised when it occurred. Aside these scenes, there are a few stunt driving gone awry , footage of napalming in Vietnam, more WWII footage, and  a repeated  scene of an execution  from the first film. 

 If you are into death scenes, gore, and the taboo, then perhaps this is for you. I really don’t find these films enjoyable. Besides most of the time you have to be pondering on whether it’s real or fake. Personally I could care a less if they are fake or real, sometimes they do a good job at making the scenes authentic. But anyway, I will leave at the bottom of the review a free link to the full movie.  Enjoy…I guess.