Gothkill

2010-02-03 04:04:19 UTC

26 GothKill.jpg 2009 You know how – generally speaking – low budgets lead to much more interesting storylines and script, when it comes to movies, tv, etc? I mean, realistically, the director has to make up for the lack of spectacle somehow. And that is not to say that it is always leads to a good intelligent product, but just that there tends to be a more thoughtful story created. And it also leads to a general singularity of vision from the director. And again this can be quite bad, but you usually at least get a very clear sense of what the writer and directors intentions are, why they are making the film, what they are trying to prove etc. and usually no matter how bad you can appreciate things on this level, even if it is the worst film you have ever seen. Goth kill, although it is extremely low budget and should lend itself to this sort of filmmaking, somehow doesn’t: It’s almost like they just pieced a film together as they went, with no real thought to story or ideas, with tons of moments that contradict early moments and the whole thing just doesn’t make sense, except perhaps as some sort of goth exploitation film. But even then…. I think they just sat down and though to themselves, hmmm we like Goths, maybe we are Goths! If we put all our money together and make a goth film with goth in the title Goths will love it and make it a gothic cult classic. Now, having been particularly enamoured of goth culture at one point in my life, I feel I can say without feeling like a twit that this film really just uses every bad goth cliché there is out there. And hell, maybe I just missed the point: maybe it is in fact a parody of goth culture. Let us hope so. Okay, so basically the premise, if we can be so kind as to acknowledge that there is one, is that Nick Dread is priest of the inquisition in Scotland (heavens know how the inquistion got there but it did, okay) in charge if burning witches finds out that the church is burning wealthy people and taking their land: the horror! Of course as he is not okay with this, he soon finds himself burned sat the stake and vows revenge. Somehow or other, he makes a deal with the devil who for some reason grants him his own kingdom in hell if he captures 100,000 souls. Now how he make s a deal with the devil and why the devil cares enough to make it are – don’t worry – not explained. And this leads me to another query. As in the Faust myth, doesn’t the existence of the devil in fact prove the existence of god, and if Dread is killed upholding all that is good and merciful and trying to challenge and put the church on a good path, wouldn’t he be eligible to get into heaven, and since the devil is willing to send him back to collect souls, wouldn’t god be willing to send him back to right wrongs? And voila, you could have another blood bath from the side of righteousness. This whole devil thing just doesn’t make sense. Okay so centuries go by and he collects these souls; Again, we don’t really know how or why, I mean, I believe killing people wouldn’t just automatically let you collect their soul, or am I some how confused there? Anyway, dude collects his last soul and is executed only to arrive in his kingdom that is empty of souls. Oh my the devil lies. Enter the Goths. Some innocent chick moves to the city to live with her cool cousin, who has discovered how cool goth is. They get goth and find their way to this ultimate elite club that is the coolest in the city, and of course as with all of the coolest clubs it is a disguised mecca for raping innocent Goths. As the main guy, fuck I’m bored just recounting this, finds an old spell book to make things seem more groovy he unwittingly unleashes the soul of Dread into this innocent girls body and the fun and games begin. Basically lots of really uninteresting uninspired slaughter. I mean I get this is going for the campy and silly cult thing, but really it just isn’t over the top enough. It either needs to be: (1) more serious and creepy, or (2) way more silly. It’s like people that want to be silly and fun but can’t let their coolness shields down long enough to actually do that. Anyway some more stuff happens the film ends. The DVD has extras if you really care. Gothkill

2010-02-03T04:04:24Z

2010-01-21 18:36:03 UTC

25 chieftans-cover.jpg 2009 A DVD of the Chieftains live is a bit of a tough thing to review for me. Because? Well, for starters, I think fans of the Chieftains know who they are and what they are about, and probably pretty much what to expect live. Anyone that would like them probably already knows about them and therefore writing for someone that doesn’t know them is kind of pointless and not going to make anyone want to listen to it. Also, and this is the real crux of the problem, it leaves me with just a review of whether it is good or not. And herein lies the problem: I like the Chieftains but I would have to say I’m not really a fan, so to approach this as good or bad in comparison to their other work is a bit difficult. And hell, as anyone who knows the Chieftains will say it’s not going to be bad. So I guess the thing to do is really to get outside of this and try to review it as a representation of their work. Now, that said: if you are not familiar with this band they are essentially an Irish folk band formed in 1962 notorious for putting Irish music on the map and popularizing it. According to their website, they are responsible for bringing Irish traditional music to the world’s attention and have worked with the some best musicians of Ireland to not only pay homage to the music of the past but to move it into the future. Som yeah, crash course over. Now another big confession that I have to make is that generally I don’t enjoy live videos. Like, okay maybe a song or two. But a whole video of watching someone play live makes me somehow feel cheated, like you can see a bands musical prowess, but you miss the whole energy of the crowd and you know you miss that guy standing or sitting beside you that keeps shifting uncomfortably and that you really you just want to pop out their eyes; You know that experience. And this was recorded live in 1997at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival, started in 1967 in Switzerland, recognized as one of the world’s greats. So in terms of credibility this has that in spades. There is a bit of everything one would expect from traditional Irish music; lots of fiddle and flute, and pipes and all kinds of nice other things. We even get treated to a little bit of Irish step dancing which is alright in my books. Most of the songs are played in medleys showcasing the Chieftains various albums, notably the Long Black Veil and Santiago which at the time had been recently released and the group was promoting them. Really, the whole live experience comes across as quite invigorating and pretty amazing. As a DVD I feel things are a bit lacking though having just the concert and well that’s it. No special features or extra shows or anything which really would have been nice. And the opening credit montage is quite ridiculous and really serves to take away from the music that is about to play. With this sort of lame elevator electronica. Okay I know I know it is just for the company name set et al, but still. But aside from that it gives a really great impression of the Chieftains live, like really you feel like you’re right there and there were some pretty freaking sweet songs played. So I guess if you can’t actually see the Chieftains live this will make up for it. And as someone that doens’t really appreciate live footage of bands I actually watched the whole thing through, and instead of getting bored I really rather appreciated it. Chieftains - Live at Montreux 1997

2010-01-21T18:36:08Z

2009-09-28 04:39:41 UTC

24 o-zelador.jpg 2009 From the title, one might assume that O Zelador would appeal to the narrowest of niche markets, but this Portugese documentary with English subtitles in facts has a wide-ranging appeal for anyone with an interest in Brazil, or world music and culture. The movie focuses on Master Russo, a capoeira master who lives in a poor neighbourhood on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Russo has had a lifelong interest in capoeira and seems to value it for it’s spirituality, community and philosophical system. He appears to be a deeply peaceful person with a generosity that inspires the allegiance of generations of students. Beyond Russo’s tale, the movie focuses on the political oppression of Brazil in the sixties, the same oppression that the Tropicalia movement grew out of; on the struggles of Brazil’s poor, and the government-ignored neighbourhood of Baixada Fluminense. Not surprisingly, the movie looks at the history of capoiera, tracing it from it’s origins in Brazil’s African slave population, through to the evolution of Afro-Brazilian culture, and the growing respect that capoeira has seen in recent years as it has been adopted around the world. In illustrating this history, the film can’t avoid touching on other aspects of Brazilian culture: samba, carnival, the Tropicalistas, and the political and culture history of Brazil. Although the liner notes describe Russo’s neighbourhood as intimidating, and hint at the dangerous life therein, the movie itself is very peaceful and joyful, as are, seemingly, most of the people interviewed. The music – primarily chants and _berimbau_, is at times very moving, and always magnificent, and obviously it’s a pleasure to watch people playing masterfully at capoeira in the streets throughout the film. O Zelador is a beautiful film, and successfully manages to be both education and pleasure at the same time. That, in my estimation, is the mark of a truly successful documentary. Recommended. O Zelador

2009-09-28T04:39:44Z

1 B001YTOIRW

2009-09-14 17:24:17 UTC

23 tracey-takes-on.jpg 2009 As a result of not having television, I only ever hear about shows after the fact when somebody is shocked that I’m not a fan of such and such a show. I hadn’t checked in with Tracey Ullman since the early 80’s when the video for her hit “You Broke My Heart In 17 Places” was in regular rotation. Boy, have I been missing out. Tacey Takes On… The Complete and Final Seasons is so good that I’ve been scouring big box DVD retailers who shall remain nameless, around Montreal. I went so far as to trek way the hell up to Marche Central for a hellish Saturday afternoon, trying to dig up a copies of the the first two seasons to no avail. Next stop: Amazon. Yeah, I burned through this DVD pretty quickly, in a non-stop orgy of delight and guffaws. It’s three discs: season 3, season 4 and three new half-hour episodes, each one devoted to a particular character from Tracey’s repertoire. The premise of the show, if you’re not already familiar, is that each of the episodes – there are 21 here not counting the 3 bonus features – focuses on a given topic, be it Smoking, Scandal, Drugs, Erotica, Obsession, America, and so on. The topics are explored through a series of recurring characters, each of which Tracey takes on with equal apolmb and accumen. There’s Rayleen, the raised-by-wolves Aussie stuntwoman; Ruby, the aging Holywood make-up artist; Chic the middle-eastern cabbie; Hope Finch, the wide-eyed, excitable college student; and my personal favorite, Kay Clark, the British ex-pat banker; and many, many more. Though this is primarily a one-person show, and a vehicle for Ullman’s seemingly inexhaustible talent, creativity and wit, the cast is rounded out with guest appearances from Michael McKean, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Cheech Marin and others. My only complain is that there wasn’t more of it: I would have loved to see more of the excellent bonus feature length sketches, on Hope Finch for example or Kay Clark. That is why, of course, I have been scrambling to get my hands on the previous seasons, a quest I think I’m going to continue now, before my Monday get fully in gear. Brilliant TV, highly recommended. After my expeditions to a number of Montreal DVD retailers, I can assure you that it is in stores now. Tracey Takes on... The Complete & Final Seasons

2009-09-14T17:24:27Z

1 B0024EWOYA

2009-08-03 05:06:54 UTC

22 return-to-forever.jpg 2009 An excellent document of Return To Forever’s 2008 reunion tour. This concert (with the exception of bonus tracks) was recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzlerland. The reunion featured the classic “rock” lineup of Return To Forever: Chick Corea, Al Di Meola, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White. The playing is obviously superb; none of the guys have lost their chops in the ensuing years. The sound and video are first-rate, mixing full-band footage with closeups of the players, including Chick rapidly switching amongst a multitude of keyboards. In addition to their typically fiery group playing, everybody has a solo piece. My complaint is with the omission of a lot of the most classic Return To Forever standards: “Light As A Feather”, “500 Miles High”, “Spain”, “Captain Marvel”, “Crystal Silence”, “Captain Señor Mouse”.That’s not to say that there arent’t a lot of great tunes on here, but they’re not the tunes that I immediately think of when I think Return To Forever. A good souvenir for those who were able to catch a show on this tour, and a great consolation for those who weren’t. Return To Forever Returns: Live at Montreux 2008

2009-08-03T05:06:57Z

2009-05-18 23:15:53 UTC

21 haunting-of-rebecca-verlain.jpg 2008 So okay if you don’t like cheaply made, ultra low budget horror gore fests, don’t watch this. I feel this needs to be said as so many people I know are completely funny with low budget films. Like, you find this super awesome cheap B-movie and you tell them about it and they bitch and moan about how “my god it was so unrealistic, did you see those sets, waaa waaa waa”, ignoring the awesome story line of whatever it is that makes it awesome. I find the same thing with gore, some people just freak out about over-the-top, crazy gore. So that being said the Haunting of Rebecca Verlaine obviously has this in spades. And some of the gore gets pretty nasty. In fact the most brutal of it all takes place during the opening sequence. Okay, so basic premise: Rebecca Verlaine is haunted. Okay good enough? No? okay more then. Basically a hippie musician lives in this commune/love shack/farm whatever it is with a bunch of other like-minded people. One night they are all murdered in their sleep and no one has any clues as to who has done it. The only survivor is a young girl who represses all the memories and has no idea this has even happened. They decide the only thing to do is not try to get her to remember and let her live a normal life. Jump forward about 10 years or so. The girl is in university studying psychology and she starts getting crazy hallucinations: a blood soaked man that is shocked she doesn’t recognize him. So of course she approaches her “parents” (actually her aunt and uncle) who tell her the truth and her boyfriend/husband/whatever also knows about it. So they all tell her it is just her memories returning and of course it gets more and more real. Ewwweeeeoooo spooky right? And so she returns to the scene of the crime to try and solve this mystery, for which the case has been closed for years with no leads. Of course this is where things start getting really fucking weird and awesome, but if tell you anymore I’ll ruin the whole damn thing for you and I really don’t want to do that. But lets just say it is pretty awesome. Part psychological thriller, part horror, part murder mystery it really does have some really great plot twists and interesting ideas. And yes the camera work is shoddy, the acting at times horribly over the top and sometimes not so good. Things are cheap and the props aren’t always amazing, but the scripting makes up for it and there really aren’t any moments where you cringe and go ouch that is bad. It’s really just a good, low budget, B-movie, with enough intrigue and surprises to get you into it. At first I thought the ending was going to be really obvious, and in a way I suppose it is, but it threw me none the less, I had expected a totally different set of events to occur and for there to be a much more typical lame, psycho drama type ending. Yeah, don’t expect that. The Haunting Of Rebecca Verlaine

2009-05-18T23:15:58Z

2009-05-07 20:48:07 UTC

20 ReVamped.jpg 2007 Well when I sat down to watch Revamped my girlfriend was really hoping for a vampire makeover movie, that would have been great. You know like well vampires live forever right, so obviously every few years they are gonna have to do some revamping of their lives and do like makeovers and shit so people don’t get suspicious, right? So therefore there could be a movie about vampire makeovers. After explaining this I also thought that would be great, actually that would be downright amazing In fact someone should make that into a movie. I wont even charge for the idea. What I got instead was something so much better. It was like somewhere between porn quality acting and scripting (minus the sex of course) and soap opera lighting and camera work. Pure and total unadulterated, unabashed cheese. And boy howdy was it enjoyable. Pure garbage through and through, but garbage of the highest calibre of course. Full of low budget actors, from TV/b-movies/porn/wrestling, I mean what else could you possibly hope for from this. Okay, okay as a disclaimer this is a pretty lame movie, if you have no sense of humor and can’t understand why really cornball movies that are badly made might be fun, then you should avoid this at all costs. Okay basically what it is about is this, presumably, wealthy man who discovers his wife is cheating on him, only to see an ad on late night TV for becoming a vampire. He decides this will be the best revenge. So he makes a deal with the company to become a vampire. The only problem is that at his funeral his wife, who he has cut out of the will, has him cremated instead of buried. So cut ahead to five years later where his urn is still at the funeral home and some sort of satanic cult is buying bodies from the undertakers. They kill the undertakers and knock the urn over in the ensuing excitement ,and of course as soon as his ashes touch the blood, viola! instant vampire. And of course in the intervening time vampires have been nearly exterminated by the government who decided that the epidemic of people being transformed after watching the late night commercials was getting out of hand. So he has to try to find his wife get revenge and find the vampire that changed him as he has fallen madly in love with her, really not for any explicable reason at all. And all this while running from the dreaded vampire hunter unit. So basically it is this pretty hilarious, pretty bad vampire movie, not at all frightening or disturbing, nor particularly dark, but playful and awfully strange. Lots of cheesy one liners, some a little too groan inducing, but lots of bizarro silliness. Actually I might even watch this again, yes it was that good. (as a note I don’t tend to watch movies more than once, not really for any discernible reason, I just can’t get into them the second time around.) And just because I think this will totally sell you on Revamped, there is a part where he is waiting for his vampire transformation where he imagines himself as a vampire and the revenge he will get, and well basically it is the most clichéd movie vampire images that come to your mind, and it is pretty frigging awesome. Revamped

2009-05-07T20:48:13Z

2009-01-06 13:00:16 UTC

19 patti-smith-dream-of-life.jpg 2008 Dream of Life is not a concert movie. Don’t expect to see hours of footage of godmother punk performing her fiery back catalogue. While you will be treated to a few snippets of Patti performing; Dream of Life is rather an intimate portrait of one of the world’s most influential and lyrically gifted artists. No one else possesses such longevity, which makes her the sole survivor of the beat generation, through the punk movement and into the present day. Dream of Life was filmed over a period of eleven years. Director Steven Sebring, who was introduced to Smith my Michael Stipe, and Smith joked that the film would only reach completion when one of them took their final dirt nap. Thankfully Smith, now 62, seems poised to rock the mic for years to come. Dream of Life details Smith’s personal life in its entirety; from her beginnings in Deptford, New Jersey to her oddly sexual relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Smith’s parents encouraged her read poetry as a child which no doubt influenced her later artistic aspirations. “It wasn’t necessarily a bohemian household,” Smith recalls in an interview with The Times. “I didn’t totally fit in even to that. I had my own ideas, my own drives. Also I was tall and skinny, a brooding kind of kid, into jazz and Joan Baez and then Bob Dylan, in a rural community where the things that preoccupied me were foreign to most of my neighbours.” In the film Smith confesses when she was younger she wanted to be an opera singer or a more traditional performer. “..Approaching songs with the kind of musical lethargy like Billie Holiday…. But I never dreamed of singing in a rock and roll band, this idea just really didn’t exist in my world. But my world was rapidly changing,” Smith said. The film shows Smith’s resiliency when faced with change. Her brother Todd and husband/collaborator Fred “Sonic” Smith, formerly of MC5, died within weeks of each other. Smith is oddly positive about the tragedy that marred her life. When Fred passed away she took her children and moved back to NYC and began recording again, scoring two Grammy noms for “1959” and “Glitter in their Eyes”. While Smith’s poetry and lyrics can be dark at times, she states that her brother’s death made her feel oddly happy, thankful that she was able to know such a great human being. Her affirmative take on life’s low points are exemplary. Dream of Life also lets the viewer have a glimpse at her children with Fred. Jesse and Jackson grow up during the course of the film, culminating with Jackson taking over Fred’s place on stage beside his mother. While her daughter Jesse, looks much like Smith, androgynous and tough. Near the end of the film Smith is shown at a concert ranting against Bush and his tyrannical foreign policy, which ties in with the song “Radio Baghdad” from 2004’s Trampin’. “When I was young I was so depressed about Vietnam; now it seems almost a luxury that that was all I had to be depressed about,” Smith told The Times. “There is so much injustice and corruption, it just seems endless. But one has to do one’s work, to live one’s life and do the best one can.” Dream of Life is collectively is a lot like some of Smith’s songs; a bit aimless with overlapping vocals and images of passing scenery. There’s one ten minute scene of Smith and Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Flea on a beach conversing about urinating in precarious situations, why this scene was included I don’t know. One of mainstream rag Entertainment Weekly’s critics’s included Dream of Life in his worst movies of the year list, which is way harsh. There’s no resolution here. Smith doesn’t talk about how she feels being in her 60s and still performing. She doesn’t offer advice or words of wisdom. Dream of Life is simply a story; a simple story of a multi-talented and revolutionary woman who still paints with her fingers and called her father Daddy until he the day he died and still has a lot more fire to spread. “Somebody asked me the other day: what’s your greatest time?” she tells The Times. “And short of saying when my husband was alive, when my children were small and we were all together — for me, it’s right now.” Patti Smith - Dream of Life

2009-01-06T13:00:23Z

2008-12-11 19:08:29 UTC

18 lair-of-the-minotaur-dvd.jpg 2008 This Southern Lord DVD contains both the TV edit and an uncensored cut of the War Metal Battle Master video, as well as a few little documentary pieces on the making of the video, and quite a number of live videos. If you’re not familiar with the video, it’s quite outrageous and funny - hot blood-soaked naked chicks devouring human bodies and eating people alive, Roman gladiators battling in Death Valley, as well as clips of the bands playing in front of the burnt out ruins of a house in the desert. A classic metal video. The cover claims that this was banned in 31 countries. It's not hard to believe. Worth checking out if you are a Lair of The Minotaur fanatic. Lair of the Minotaur - War Metal Battle Master

2008-12-11T19:08:32Z

2008-12-11 18:08:31 UTC

17 the-planet.jpg 2008 Okay, first of all, right of the bat, I have to get this out of the way. If you can’t stand cheap special effects, low budget filmmaking, bad to moderate, at best, acting, and cornball science fiction, do not in any way watch the Planet. Though despite all of these things I really quite enjoyed it. Well okay I actually quite like really low budget sci-fi so I’m not gonna say it like it’s some sort of surprise. In fact it might because of these qualities. I had in fact kind of expected that I might like it, hearing about how cheap and all, this actually was. Supposedly it was made for like 8000 pounds, and it really does show, but hell I quite enjoyed the actual product. Kind of neat storyline, little bit of a different spin on things. When it first started I thought, oh god crashing spaceship, prisoner, aliens, marooned ummm spaceship people, yawn I’ve seen that about a million times, but it quickly changed. The ship is brought down by unknown assailants and the crew escape separately to some previously uncharted planet, where they soon find each other, only to discover that hardly any of the ship’s personal have survived. Of course they are faced with the difficulty of finding a way to communicate their position to their home base. And there are these spirit like monsters, that only real bullets will kill, not these like electro-charge laser thingies they use, and that really make things difficult for them. And yes there is a mystery about the prisoner, who has also somehow made it off the ship and wandered out into the bleak desert landscape. And there is a big mystery about what exactly the prisoner represents. And to go any further into that would ruin the story developments that unfold. I mean it’s not the most original storyline, but hell it adds enough bizarre twists and unexpected changes to keep the viewer interested, and stop the whole thing from spiralling into some sort of bad parody of itself. Actually I said moderate acting, but to be honest for the budget and I’m guessing the experience of these people it really is pretty believable, well as believable as futuristic ghost-like alien inhabited sci-fi can be. But you actually find yourself identifying with and understanding the characters, which is good at least. And there are enough surprises, and moments of oh my gawd what is going to happen, to make it worth the watch. So basically let me recap: into low budget sci-fi? Big yes go see this. Not into that sort of thing? Well more than likely it is not going to get you into it. But it is pretty entertaining. Who knows, maybe even then you might still find it The Planet

2008-12-11T18:08:34Z