One A Week Reviews #34: The Pyjama Girl Case

Washed-up - and usually alcoholic - American movie stars who couldn't get work in the Seventies were probably beyond grateful for the European film industry.They were still marketable enough with their faded marquee glory to get jobs, and since all the audio was dubbed, more than one soused performance was probably saved. In The Pyjama Girl Case, Ray Milland and Mel Ferrer headline here, and Milland especially looks like he's a couple sheets to the wind in every scene.



The Pyjama Girl Case - based on a sensational Australian murder case from the 1930's - starts when a breezy, lazy day on a Sydney Beach is soured by the discovery of a dead woman. Her face has been burned beyond recognizing, and all the police have to go on are the yellow jammies she was wearing. Ray Milland plays the Inspector, doggedly working to solve the murder, even though it means visiting now-quaint video arcades and stopping peeping toms. The decision is made to display her nude body and destroyed face for a leering, morbid parade of spectators in the hopes someone will recognize her - the film's signature image.

While this is all going on, we also get to know Linda (Dalila Di Lazzaro) as she juggles several relationships in her very complicated love life, starting with Ferrer's character. Will she be the next victim?

(...and thar be possible spoilers ahead!)

One A Week Reviews #33: Bereavement

Call it "The best looking POS I've ever seen" or "Terrence Malick's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," Bereavement was an ill-starred review for DVDsnapshot. Blocked by a buggy computer, a buggy blu-ray disc, a death in the family, and other technical difficulties, I hope the review was judged to be worth the weight.

Bereavement

Official Synopsis:

In 1989, a 6-year-old boy is lured into the vehicle of a stranger. The stranger is a serial killer with a tendency for butchering teenage girls. In the basement of a rural Pennsylvania slaughterhouse, he will teach the boy everything he knows. Five years later, teen Allison (Alexandra Daddario of Hall Pass and Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief) comes to live with her uncle (Michael Biehn of The Terminator) following her parents' death. In time she will discover the boy and his madman mentor and they will all be plunged into an unimaginable evil from which there may be no escape. Nolan Gerard Funk (Deadgirl), Brett Rickaby (The Crazies), Valentina de Angelis (“Gossip Girl”) and John Savage (The Deer Hunter) co-star in this graphic and acclaimed shocker from writer/director Stevan Mena about family, torment, and the nightmare absolution that is Bereavement.

Our Take:

There's an advantage in watching a “prequel” when you haven't seen the movie that inspired it. There may be things staged that retroactively pay off in that film that you miss, but you get to judge it on it's own strengths. However, what do you say about a film that's the story of a six year old being molded into a serial killer?

Well, for starters, Bereavement is coldly gorgeous. Beautifully filmed, with shots chillingly composed, it oozes ominousness from beginning to end. That beginning follows a character following children around in a truck, and eventually snatching one to keep for his own and raise to be a killer. He picks Martin, who can't feel pain, and quickly stops empathizing with others.

Talk about training up a child...

One A Week Reviews #32: Norwegian Ninja

A fun flick reviewed for DVD Snapshot. Weirdly spoofy and retro, like a kind of Nordic Black Dynamite.

Official Synopsis:

A fictionalized account of the most notorious political scandal in Norwegian history, Norwegian Ninja is a deliciously tongue-in-cheek spoof of the Cold War spy movie, with added ninja action. Because, as everyone knows, every story can be made better with ninjas. Blending historical events with his own less-than-historical elements, writer-director Thomas Cappelen Mailing creates the Rushmore of ninja films, a film that wryly questions just how truthful the truth really is. And then sends a ninja to punch the truth in the face.

Our Take:

According to Wikipedia, Arne Treholt was a Norwegian politician and diplomat convicted of treason as a Soviet and Iraqi in “the most serious spy case in the modern history of Norway.” However, the revisionist satire Norwegian Ninja chooses to add another dimension – that he was also a member of the Ninja Force of the King of Norway.

Reclaimed as leader of a crack squad of “Ninjas” who seem more like a Nordic “A-Team,”I suppose this is a bit like an American recasting Alger Hiss as James Bond? If the film's political and satirical dimensions escape you (as they did with this viewer), one can still enjoy the sense of humor, witty eye of eighties detail, and some surprisingly effective CGI as these “GI Svens”of the “Ninjatroppen” defend the Norwegian way of life. The look, however, is frequently more seventies than eighties, but the verve of this film gives it a delightful uniqueness. One set-piece especially, involving an oil-rig, is so creative that any limitations of the computer effects are quickly forgiven.

One A Week Reviews #31: Breath

A beautiful Korean surprise reviewed for DVDsnapshot.com - and highly recommended.

A prisoner on death row and a woman who's drawn to his plight go through their own spring, summer, fall and winter of love in Breath, a typically quirky chamber drama by helmer Kim Ki-duk.

Nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes, this emotional tour-de-force from the world-renowned Korean auteur will sweep you away with restrained passions painted in seasonal colours. Asian star Chen Chang (Red Cliff; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) leads an excellent cast that includes a Jung-Woo (The Chaser) and Park Ji-a (The Coast Guard).

Our Take:

It's easy to understand why Breath was nominated for the Palm d'Or at Cannes. Scenes in films are composed to direct the eye where the filmmaker wishes the viewer to look. Kim Ki-duk seems to thrive in oblique composition and scenes that almost engage in misdirection. The subject is frequently happening right outside the frame, off-center, or even the blurry foreground. With a spareness of both visuals and dialogue, this plain quiet movie adds up to be surprisingly rich.

Yeon is a frustrated wife and sculptor who's just discovered her husband is having an affair, and decides on a whim to visit Jang-jin. He's a death row inmate who'd tried to kill himself to avoid his pending execution. Breath is the kind of film that can make a character's affair perfectly clear from the beginning even if not actually confirmed until the half-way point (and that is not a spoiler).

One A Week Reviews: An Update

So, I've been off-line a lot lately...

At the beginning of the year I set a simple goal for myself with this blog - to try and knock out one movie review a week. I love writing them, and a few dear souls (you know who you are) are kind enough to enjoy perusing them. Sure, some are re-purposed work from DVD Snapshot and Exploitation Retrospect, but it's still my writing, and it's fun for me. I also set a goal that I'd do 31 Horror reviews for October, which I did a couple years ago and enjoyed immensely.

These were small goals, but I felt they were manageable. Well, the best laid plans of mice and blogs...

I've been a busy boy, with a busy summer and a career change. I moved into social media, which has been demanding and rewarding, but very time consuming. A modicum of free time, and creativity turned primarily in the service of clients, lead to Big Lug Land falling a bit by the wayside. By a tardy Week #30, I'd stalled out completely.

I'll be catching up this week, to bring myself back up to this weekend, which will be #38. As I've been banking some reviews for October over the year, I also plan to engage in the daily October reviews. Many sites do this, and I say the more the merrier! It was fun for me last time I did it, and I regret not joining in last year.

So, Big Lug Land is getting back on schedule, and I'll also be returning to my original purpose for the blog. Opinion and personal pieces along with the reviews I have so much fun writing.

Thank you to everyone who's stuck with me through the many ups and downs lately, especially my Chris, my "Halloween People," and my Twitter peeps. I'm back, and I look forward to properly engaging with all of you again!