Death Proof

Hump Day! Yeah this week has been slipping by. Sinuses have been delightful. So I thought we would do some Tarantino from the double feature, Grindhouse. The Plant Terror segment was directed by Robert Rodriguez.   The term Grindhouse establishes marque or drive-ins exploitation films using vulgar language, sexual themes and extreme depictions of violence. The criteria biker flicks, slasher horror films and English Dubbed Martial Arts films. So with that, howzabout Kurt Russell as a villain, lovely ladies lives on the line and near indestructible car. This is Death Proof.

Girls' road trip!

Our story opens with the usual seventies style font for title cards, musical score piping through and confirming Tarantino's foot fetish. Oh sorry, did folks not know about that?

Three friends hit a bar in Texas to celebrate disk jockey "Jungle" Julia Lucai (Sydney Tamiia Poitier of Veronica Mars, Blues, Knight Rider, Kendra, Chicago P.D.and Carter), Shanna (Jordan Ladd of Embrace of the Vampire, Never Been Kissed, The Specials, Cabin Fever, Madhouse, Hostel: Part II and Robot Chicken)and Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito of 24, Spider-Man 2, Man of the House, Shadowboxer, CSI: NY, Graceland and NCIS: New Orleans) for two reasons, Jungle gets top slot and it's her birthday. The girls are hanging, gabbing and a bit of boy talk. Julia states on a radio announcement that her friend, "Butterfly" will give a free lap dance to the contestant that buys her a drink and quotes a passage from Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Some chicks are just demanding that way.

This is not a time period piece unless smartphones learned time travel. Arlene swears she saw the guy prior but our boy Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell of The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Love, American Style, Superdad, Elvis and Used Cars) got her a drink and managed a recite pretty damn well. He earned his lap dance, one would conclude.

I'm so not blowing Kurt Russell....again.

The girls' party starts petering out and one of their friends Pam (Rose McGowan of Scream, Phantoms, Jawbreaker, Ready to Rumble, Charmed, Planet Terror and Nip/Tuck) needs a lift and Stuntman Mike is more than able to oblige.. His ride is unique. 100% Death Proof. That would make a decent sales pitch for a used car lot, right? He neglected to mention, you have to be on his side of the car. He peels out, finds Julia and party and smashes in them in such a fashion, it looks like the girls plowed right into him.

With his alcohol levels practically nil and the girls' higher than a Georgia pine, Mike is written off as the victim but Sheriff McGraw (Earl Parks of Arizona Heat, Twin Peaks, Sorceress, From Dusk Til Dawn, 13 Moons, Kill Bill: Vol.1, The Librarians, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, One Night with You and Red State) swears otherwise. With no hard evidence, he reluctantly let's Mike scram.

That'll buff right out.

14 months later, Mike is back to his old tricks again as he spots three good looking girls, Abernathy (Rosario Dawson of Josie and the Pussycats, The Rundown, Alexander, Sin City, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Defenders), Kim (Tracie Thoms of Wonderfalls, Descent, Cold Case, Safe House, Looper and Raze) and Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead of Passions, Wolf Lake, Sky High, Scott Pilgrim vs.the World, Live Free or Die Hard and Fargo)

at a convenience store, snapping pics of them. Probably wanking in his car as well. Mike's kind of a scumbag as you may have figured out.

If Kurt's world is black &white, it just got a little cooler.

The girls are picking up a friend of theirs, Zoe Bell. (Zoe Bell of Billy Elliot, Angel of Death, Gamer, Whip It, Bitch Slap, Fallout: New Vegas, Raze and Mercenaries) Stuntwoman extraordinaire, buddy and race car junkie. She tells the girls she wants to test drive a 1970 Challenger, the same make and model of the 1971 flick, Richard C. Sarafian's Vanishing Point starring Barry Newman and Cleavon Little. The owner is reluctant until Abernathy tells the owner that Lee is in porn and will be staying behind while they test drive the car.

THANKS Abernathy!!

Will Stuntman Mike make another crack up? Will the girls be victimized? Will I keep the spoilers to a minimum?

And now a few film facts!!! Yeah hold your applause, those that are fleeing. Okay,

a)  The jukebox that is seen in the bar is actually our director, Quentin Tarantino's own personal jukebox that was trucked in and the list of albums are made by his discretion.

b) Stuntman Mike's rides are a 1969 Dodge Charger and a 1970 Chevy Nova.

c) Zoe Bell being a stunt double for Uma Thurman in the Kill Bill Vol 1 and 2 was expecting to be an extra but in fact was surprised when Tarantino gave her the lead heroine role instead. How do you break that news? With a blown up pic of her on the cover of your film. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Lastly, d) This film is presented in chronological order and zero flashbacks!!! DOES NOT COMPUTE!!

On the ego killing front, this movie came out in 2007, which ages Kurt Russell at 56 and STILL his arms look like spun steel. Sorry, sorry. Just trying to bulk up. Hey we got a Wilhelm scream addition.

We also have characters from the zombie horror, Robert Rodriguez Planet Terror making appearances as this was events happening leading up to their film. The scratchy effect of the daily footage, cigarette burns and jump cuts are all on purpose to give a next to no budget exploitation flick and homage to the 70s. They actually used razor blades to scrape the footage rather than that cheesy digital overlay effect in post production. Yeah I can do that effect too, so I can appreciate the extra effort that went into this.

With Zoe doing her own stunts, I would be piss scared if anything happened to her but hey I am glad I didn't have to make that call. From lighting and music cues, it reminds me of Friday the 13^th meets Race with the Devil. Simple story, good looking cast and some quality tunes. Dark story it may be, impressive nonetheless.

Cruisin' and jammin' to tunes.  Dear God I'm old.

John Carpenter's Escape From L.A.

Welcome back everyone. Let's check out a sequel. It's been 17 years from the original, and the world is still in the sad state it has been. In the late 20^th century, hostile forces inside the United Staes grow strong. Within Los Angeles, the city is ravaged by crime and immorality, the United States Police Force stand ready to handle the offending town. A final 9.6 tremor on the Richter scale separates this wicked city from the rest of the United States. This is Escape From L.A

Gruff and green screened.

In the far away time of 2014, (yup still love that gag) with an presidential status putting a man in office for life, the President (Cliff Robertson of Too Late the Hero, Man on a Swing, Three Days of the Condor, Falcon Crest, The Sunset Boys, Spider-Man, and Spider-Man 2) passes laws establishing undesirables ranging from anyone deemed immoral, lesser or anyone refusing to adhere to the new moral order. The police encamp around L.A.with a 40 foot high fencing circling the town and the rules are simple. Once you are sent to L.A., you never come back. No parole.

Deemed the most dangerous man in the United States, an old soldier turned crook, Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell of Escape From New York, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Tango & Cash, The Hateful Eight and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2) is being brought into the President, USPF Commander Malloy (Stacey Keach of The New Mike Hammer, Hemingway, False Identity, Lincoln, Body Bags, Titus, Mike Hammer, Private Eye and Death Row) and Lt. Brazen (Michelle Forbes of Swimming with Sharks, Kalifornia, 24, True Blood, The Returned, Powers, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and Berlin Station) to offer Snake a new deal. See kids, since NYC, ole Snake has racked up his fair share of charges and grievances and is looking ripe to make a trip to Hollywood.  

Trump's anti-immigrant laws are getting rough.

Air Force One has been overthrown by the President's daughter Utopia (A.J. Langer of The People Under the Stairs, My So-Called Life, Three Sisters, Private Practice and Kristin's Christmas Past), stealing a black box that controls satellites and its EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) frying anything electronic including batteries and items and vehicles turned off. So Stealth bombers are shielded and...yeah that is about it. Really didn't see this tyrannical "moral order" having drawbacks or people opposing it? Really?

Snake goes in, gets the box and comes back. This is the mission. One way or the other, Plissken is getting a tan. With the threat of a virus coursing through his veins, Plissken has 12 hours to get the black box or the virus kills him. Have they ever been through L.A.traffic?? Thankfully Plissken ran into Maps to the Stars Eddie, Mr. Pink himself Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs, The Hudsucker Proxy, Pulp Fiction, Desperado, Con Air, The Big Lebowski and Portlandia). Okay he isn't particularly useful but does have a few plot devices as an assist. The man running L.A.is no Duke of New York. Yeah sorry to crush Cuervo Jones' nut sack like that, but you ain't Issac Hayes, bub.

Piloting or poop think? You decide.

With an chance encounter, Snake bumps into (be still, heart) Taslima (Valerie Golino of Rain Man, Hot Shots!, Hotel, Caesar, Alive and In Treatment) as the two are snagged by roaming loonies not too disimilar to the cannibals in New York. Downside is they are set to be harvested for parts at the behest of the Surgeon General of Beverly Hills (Bruce Campbell of The Evil Dead, Crimewave, Mindwarp, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., Xena: Warrior Princess, Bubba Hotep and Spider-Man).

With this gaggle of goons, loons and grade A nutbars, can Plissken accomplish his mission and defeat Cuervo? Will he have to use salt and lime? Did anyone not get the tequila joke?

Okay so let's clear the air. Yeah the surfing scene looks pretty bad in green screen, sure. Yes a lot of the CGI for the helicopter was not great. Got it. Here's what I enjoyed. Characters appearing up in a John Carpenter movie.

Plissken getting into some smack down fights, underhanded gunning guys down and in general behaving like a proper antihero that he is. Russell slimmed and toned for the role so he could fit in his original costume 17 years prior.  That's some dedication.  This is also the only Carpenter sequel, Carpenter himself directed. Yeah Halloween II, Vampires: Los Muertos and the godforsaken prequel, The Thing not directed by John. Well a handful of scenes in the original Halloween II but other than that, those flicks are handled by others.

Let's see...funny trivia. Ah, both Bruce Campbell and Kurt Russell have been doubled by the bizarrely named cowboy stuntman John "Johnny" Casino. Both were also in the Disney superhero film, Sky High in spite of not having any scenes together.

This flick was stuck in development hell for over a decade. The first script commissioned was deemed too campy and was unlikely to be made until Russell told Carpenter he wanted to play Plissken again and pushed to getting it off the ground. Making only half of its budget back, 25 million to a 50 million budget, I had fun with it. Many folks complained it was too violent a movie or far too similar to the original. Aside from a handful of nitpicks, I got to see my favorite antihero back, making an impact and being a true badass.

Blam!

John Carpenter Week: The Thing

You hear every sound as the tick of the clock allows for another minute to pass by.  You feel the sweat on your brow lightly trickling down and you know in your heart of hearts the person next to you may not be what he or she appears to be.  This is The Thing.

Lordy, how could spoilers survive in 0 degree weather?

In 1982, John Carpenter remade Howard Hawks 1951’s science fiction film The Thing from another World into simply The Thing; an alien entity that has the ability to change its molecular structure and DNA into something or someone else through assimilation.    On an Antarctic research station deep in the snow and ice lurks something man has never seen, 12 men will be pushed to the breaking point of sanity and paranoia will seep in.   OoOo got carried away there.  

Based on the original story, “Who Goes There?” by Science-Fiction writer John W. Campbell Jr., the screenplay for the 1982 version was written by Bill Lancaster (The Thing, The Bad News Bears film and TV series) and helmed by director John Carpenter (Assault On Precinct 13, Halloween, Escape From New York, Big Trouble In Little China, and Vampires) unfolds a story of 12 men encountering a malamute being shot at from a helicopter by a Norwegian research team when the copter explodes and kills the pilot and co-pilot.  The rifleman still trying to kill the dog is shot by the station commander Garry (Donald Moffat of The Thing, When the Time Comes, Clear and Present Danger).  

 Helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russel of The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Escape From New York, The Mean Season, Soldier and Deathproof) and Dr. Copper (Richard Dysart of Being There, L.A. Law, The Thing and Spawn the Animated Series) discover a camp completely ruined and torched. A few deaths consistent with suicide and outside in the snow is a body with two heads burnt to almost lack of recognition.  The body is wrapped and research documents are taken back to the station.  Through an autopsy Doctor Blair (Wilford Brimley of The Waltons, The China Syndrome, Brubaker, Roughnecks and Borderline) the two faced creature is perfectly normal.  The malamute starts attacking all the other sled dogs and is toasted with a flamethrower wielded by Chiles (Keith David of The Thing, Platoon, They Live, Clockers, Gargoyles, and Spawn the Animated Series) then brought to Blair to do I guess a necropsy on it.  Blair finds cells in it that are not animal DNA and proceeds to comb the Norwegians’ records.  He discovers that an alien life form that was said to have came to Earth in a flying saucer and they speculate millions of years ago trapped under sheets of ice as far back as the first Ice Age. 

Finding this research everyone becomes skittish around one another, locking their doors and arming themselves.  Who is who?  Am I next?  FX wizard Rob Bottin (Maniac, The Howling and Robocop) is responsible for ¾ of the creature creations and prosthetics.  The dog creature was crafted by none other than the late Stan Winston (Dracula’s Dog, Parasite, The Terminator, Aliens, Predator 1 and 2).  35mm film with a Panavision anamorphic lens shot at a slower speed of 2.35.  Tight shots, a soundtrack composed by Ennio Morricone (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, The Untouchables, Once Upon a Time in the West and Once Upon a Time in America) rather than Carpenter.    In conclusion, if you don’t mind feeling a bit twitchy and love a good scare then this flick still stands the test of time but never watch it alone…

Call me Snake..

In the far away timeline of 1997(huh?), crime has risen nearly 400% so prior to that in 1988 New York City has been converted into the world’s maximum security end all prison.  Those that have been convicted of high treasonous crimes are deported to New York and given no chance of parole.  New York is surrounded by a 50-foot high wall of concrete and razor wire, the bridges are mind and waterways are patrolled by regular routine helicopter fly bys.   The United States Police forces are camped around it like an army.  China, The Soviet Union (Communism is the wave of the future!) and America are in negotiations when Air Force One is hijacked by a terrorist liberation front called the National Liberation Front causing the President to use an escape pod and landing in the prison.  A rescue attempt must be made. 

Lotta spoilers in the Hudson.

Hiyas folks today we review the 1981 despotic future storyline Escape from New York.   Brought to us by legendary director/editor/composer John Carpenter (Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog, Remake of the Village of the Damned and Vampires) and writer/director Nick Castle (Major Payne, The Last Starfighter and Taps)   America has become a police state enforcing law with extreme prejudice and vital information needed for the summit, Police Commissioner Robert Hauk (Lee Van Cleef of The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Gunsmoke and Have Gun Will Travel) must recruit former special forces solider “Snake” Plissken (Kurt Russel of The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from L.A.) to infiltrate the prison, get back the President (Donald Pleasance of You Only Live Twice, Halloween 1,2,4,5,6) and off the island in 24 hours.  A full pardon is offered for this blatant suicide mission and Snake is tagged with a dissolving explosive in his system to keep him in check.    Snake uses a glider to land on the Sears Tower in order to take off at a later date.   Getting to ground; Snake runs into a cornucopia of criminal elements of all types, ranging from cannibals, small time offenders to mass murderers.  Now added by temporary alliances the clock is running out for the President and Plissken must reluctantly save the day.

At this point I would love to point out what it is about this movie that makes it so enjoyable.  Cost effective effects for the glider’s radar was done with a scale model of Manhattan Island with a series of reflective tape to look like a mapping process.  With a 6 million budget in 1981 managed matt based shots, aerial helicopter shots of which was used with the St. Louis National Guard as Blackhawk police copters and furthermore due to the fire in 1973 for two days; this area’s safety was blocks devastation that according to Carpenter it spoke volumes to him and was the ideal set for his steady cams via dolly track.  His minimum lighting techniques always give his films a more eerie feel in the same fashion Hitchcock had.  His love of anamorphic camera lens gives his sets more scope and depth to the film. 

If you enjoy this particular genre of possible futures, Do NOT skip this film.  With memorable lines, excellent character development, this is an overall great experience to be had.