Product Comments

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  Posted: 9/16/2011 11:46:20 PM

  (10.0 Out of 10) Heathers (1989) is one of the best dark-comedies that I have ever seen! As a satire on the social cliques of high school and a look at teen suicide, the film is very moralist with its positive messages. Extremely delightful and funny, as well as finely acted and smart, Heathers is a film that is best viewed by those who still remember and understand teenage anguish. A grand, masterful work.
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  Posted: 9/16/2011 11:45:01 PM

  (7.0 Out of 10) Contraband (1980), the only crime film by Lucio Fulci, is packed with enough action and gory set pieces to make it never boring. It may be derivative of its precursors and lacks a script that is surprising, but the film also packs enough of its own punch, coming off like The Godfather getting bumped and bruised in a bar fight. Contraband is a fun time despite its redundant blemishes.
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  Posted: 9/16/2011 11:43:15 PM

  (1.0 Out of 10) Without even one truly unsettling or bizarre set piece, Lucio Fulci’s The House by the Cemetery (1981,) shows why there is always a thin line between good and bad schlock. The film never really disgusts you or gives you any sensation, aside from a few pretty uninspired gory set pieces that are now in vogue again with the Saw franchise. It’s sad to still see that some horror filmmakers haven’t progressed much from this shit.
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  Posted: 9/16/2011 11:42:27 PM

  (5.0 Out of 10) From the first scenes, City of the Living Dead (1980) is clearly a Lucio Fulci film. Eschewing plot and narrative junction in favor of terror and gore, as in all Fulci flicks it gets high marks for its technical aspects. The dim and gothic photography meshes with the cryptic set design and dreary atmospheric ambience, set to a deathly musical score. The zombie makeup is fantastically harrowing and some of the death sequences (especially one by power drill) is disturbingly effective. However, although some Fulci film’s lack a coherent plot (and don’t even think about story development) they can often coast on the surrealism of it all. Problem is this dreamlike approach may buoy Suspiria because it felt vital to the film, here one is not even sure if the lack of consistency was even part of the game plan. So sometimes feverishly frightening and other times painfully absurd, City of the Living Dead is a film that is half in heaven and half in hell.
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  Posted: 9/16/2011 11:37:10 PM

  (1.0 Out of 10) Alike The House by the Cemetery, Lucio Fulci’s The New York Ripper (1982) is both dull, turgid, and a cinematic waste. Very sleazy, but without much purpose, the film is neither fun nor well designed. Thus, ineffective highly-gory slasher moments for the sake of it does not a good film make.
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  Posted: 9/16/2011 11:33:34 PM

  (5.0 out of 10) The Italian-Horror director and the godfather of gore, Lucio Fulci, is often only rated in terms of how ‘cool’ his often gruesome set pieces where. His 1979 film, Zombie, has an infamous eyeball puncture and a zombie vs. shark scene that are admittedly pretty effective in a grindhouse way. However, most of the actual movie is pretty languid until its exciting final twenty minutes that show why these types of sleazy and shocking films were an appeal. As a whole, Zombie shows what is good and bad about both Fulci and the grindhouse era.
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  Posted: 9/16/2011 11:32:42 PM

  (6.0 Out of 10) Despite some glum situations, at the heart of The Road (2009) there is hope, despite what so many people say. However, unlike the fine visual eye and sense of urgency he brought to The Proposition (2005,) Director John Hillcoat fumbles with the slower pace of this film, his style coming off pretty blandly. Very well acted and intentioned, the final impression is this apocalyptic sci-fi drama could have hit harder.
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  Posted: 9/16/2011 11:31:17 PM

  (6.0 Out of 10) The Signal (2007) has a tense first 1/3, a too pushy middle, and a fine denouement. As the three directors who each did there own 1/3 of the film each brought their own style. Only the middle does not fit, its comedy also coming off unnatural. The film would have been much better had it been serious the whole way through.
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  Posted: 9/16/2011 11:30:35 PM

  (5.0 out of 10) If filmmaking were all about technical style, then There Will Be Blood (2007) would be a high watermark. Yet, it’s unfortunate for it that this type of art is about emotion and story. With characters that are either one-dimensional or behave in ways that negate true psychological evaluation, There Will Be Blood has little in the way of pathos to grasp onto. The narrative is pretty uninviting, as well, and even the grand actors can’t quite pick this too metaphysical film out of its rut. A vastly overrated effort from Paul Thomas Anderson.
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  Posted: 9/16/2011 11:28:03 PM

  (5.0 Out of 10) A tense climax saves The Human Centipede (2009) from being a below-average exercise in shocks. The film is high-concept without much attention played to characterization or dialogue. Boring for the first hour, the final half hour displays what the film should have demonstrated the whole time: interest.