Kuukausi: elokuu 2017

#692 Prom Night (1980)

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I’ve started watching Prom Night a few times before and always given up as the movie seemed far too generic and uninteresting to follow. Like many slashers of the time Prom Night doesn’t really bring anything new to the table, but just cut’n’pastes generic ideas from other movies to the mix: There’s a masked killer attacking out of nowhere, people fleeing and hiding – basically all the stuff you’ve seen elsewhere a thousand times before.

Interestingly Prom Night doesn’t just take cues from the numerous slashers of the time, but also incorporates sort of a half-assed Saturday Night Fever theme into the movie, including some campy choreographed disco dancing scenes. It is truly a strange thing to watch in a movie where most people except some tits and gore.

Being a Canadian movie Prom Night wouldn’t normally have made it to this site, but I decided to give it a chance as it stars Jamie Lee Curtis of the Halloween fame. Also, Leslie Nielsen who at the time was on the verge of his second coming as a comedy actor can be seen in a small part as the high school principle.

Neither actor bring anything to the table that’d make this movie worth your time.

80s-o-meter: 70%

Total: 12%

#691 The Sicilian (1987)

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Italian movie teams and directors did a bunch of very good Hollywood imitations in the 80s, some of them even unrecognisable from their American counterparts. Michael Cimino’s The Sicilian aims to do very much the opposite and the end result actually looks and feels a lot like European cinema.

Based on a novel of the same name by Mario Puzo of the Godfather fame, The Sicilian takes place on the old continent telling the story of Salvatore Giuliano who was a bit of a Robin Hood figure of his time fighting for the independence of Sicily against the powers that be. Like the Godfather, this book has also gained a following, but the movie adaptation is generally seen as a failure.

I have to partly agree with the majority here. The movie is plagued with a sense of grandeur in every scene but never really delivers the said epicness. The directing style of Cimino is also demanding to follow: The movie never quite grasps you in a way you’d feel a part of the events taking place on the screen and as a viewer I found myself very indifferent about what happens to the characters next. Christopher Lambert shows the emotional scale and the acting chops of an android, and the old continent style of movie making without the freshness that the magic of Hollywood sometimes brings made the movie look and feel stale.

The Sicilian is not quite the epic failure it’s been dubbed as – but it does get much more things wrong than right.

80s-o-meter: 17%

Total: 38%

#690 Little Darlings (1980)

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If you’re like me and bored to tears by the half way of Little Darlings, I strongly urge you to go on and finish it anyway. It’s only after 50 minute mark that the movie grows from an adolescent summer camp comedy to a touching depiction of what it is like to be like to live on that verge between childhood and maturity, and how our actions at the time may have bigger implications that we originally bargained for.

I was initially put off by the theme and felt the sex life of the 15-year old girls is an exploitative subject for a movie. The setup felt forced as well and both the quarrel between the two female leads and the whole bet thing just seemed very much out of the place. The following few lighthearted comedic scenes show the camp life in a more believable fashion, but leave no lasting impression. It’s only when the movie turns into a coming of age story watching Little Darlings finally pays off.

Here’s the part where Kristy McNichol really shines, and the pure honesty she pours into the closing scene with Tatum O’Neal makes it one of the most touching ones I’ve seen in a long while.

80s-o-meter: 61%

Total: 76%

#689 Black Widow (1987)

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For a movie that reveals the killer from the get go, Black Widow sure knows how to keep the tension up for the rest of its running time. It’s a thriller with crimes of passion, a tale of a friendship and deceit, ultimately leading to an inevitable showdown. Although there is certain sexual tension in the air at times, the director Bob Rafelson fortunately doesn’t go down the route of making this movie one of those awkward erotic thrillers. On the contrary; Black Window is a thriller done in a pretty good taste overall.

The chemistry and electricity between Debra Winger and Theresa Russell is absolutely marvellous, ranging from a heartful friendship to a spine tingling game of minds. Even if most of the men are just spectators in this show, most of the side characters are well written and some even fun in a quirky kind of way.

With its lush scenes of Hawaiian landscape Black Widow plays out like that perfect paperback novel we’re kind of always hoping to find when heading for a vacation.

80s-o-meter: 89%

Total: 86%

#688 The Boost (1988)

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I’ve mixed feelings about The Boost. On the other hand it’s a pretty interesting and lifelike depiction of living on a fast lane and snorting some speed to keep you going – but in the end there’s just too little going on here besides the drug theme.

Similarly to many other movies based on a book, The Boost suffers from sped up pacing while trying to shoehorn everything in the 90 minutes running time. The events, people – even years – come and go and never hang around long enough to leave a lasting impression. Some abridging and additional screenwriting would’ve done this movie a lot of good.

James Woods’ on the edge act is spot on, and watching him walking around the screen like a ticking human time bomb suits the movie perfectly, and makes one feel uneasy in a good kind of way.

The Boost’s angle is a bit off and as it is, it feels too much like a paid public service announcement constantly shaking its finger at the viewer. There are other movies about drugs – and the dangers within – that have done all this in a much more subtle, yet more powerful way.

80s-o-meter: 88%

Total: 64%

#687 Nightmare Sisters (1988)

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What do you do when you have some leftover 35mm film from your previous movie you just finished? You could haphazardly come up with a story and shoot another movie in four days.

Well, that’s what the team behind this movie did anyway. A direct to VHS movie release that soon disappeared from the public eye, Nightmare Sisters has since become something of a cult classic, famous for bringing three cult b-movie actresses for scenes of full frontal nudity that borderline soft porn. The early 90s versions shown on cable networks featured a cut of the movie with the most raunchy scenes cut out, and those rumoured cut out scenes present on current releases naturally added to the cult status of the movie.

It’s a strange mix of sub B-movie plot and FX (all the actors did their own makeup, which mostly consists of a set of plastic fangs purchased from a novelty store), paired with a solid production work in the camera and the lighting departments. The end result looks quite professional and not shoddy at all, but as a movie .. well .. it is pretty lame.

With a plot good enough maybe for a 30 minute short movie, the editor has really struggled in the cutting room to meet the 80 minute mark. Every scene is about two to three times as long as they really need to be, and there are very obvious fillers all over the place. Given all this, it’s still a surprisingly fluid experience.

80s-o-meter: 88%

Total: 41%