Tagarchief: FilmDungeon

Where the Buffalo Roam

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Art Linson
Written by: Hunter S. Thompson (stories), John Kaye (screenplay)
Cast: Bill Murray, Peter Boyle, Bruno Kirby, R.G. Armstrong

Year / Country: 1980, USA
Running Time: 95 mins.

‘I hate to advocate weird chemicals, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but in my case it worked.’ Where the Buffalo Roam is the first movie adaptation of the work of legendary Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, who is portrayed by Bill Murray in the movie.

The story of Where the Buffalo Roam deals with Thompson’s encounters with his equally legendary ‘mutant’ attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta, who is called Carl Lazlo here and is portrayed by Peter Boyle. The movie is based on Thompson’s obituary for his attorney who disappeared in Mexico in 1974, three years after their two trips to Las Vegas that were immortalized in Thompson’s masterpiece ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’.

Screenplay writer John Kaye also drew from other works of Thompson, including ‘Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72’’, ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ and ‘The Great Shark Hunt’. The final result depicts three journalistic adventures of Thompson in which Lazlo shows up. The first one involves San Francisco drug trials in which Lazlo represents wrongfully indicted youngsters. The second story shows Thompson missing the Super Bowl to accompany Lazlo on a failed activist mission. Finally, Thompson is seen on the presidential campaign where he has a one-on-one encounter with his self proclaimed nemesis Richard Nixon.

Most of the people involved, including Thompson himself, didn’t like the final result or even hated the movie. It is easy to see why. Much of Thompson’s razor sharp journalism resorts into a bunch of silliness. The second half is especially very uneven. Still, it is a lot of fun hearing a number of great Thompson quotes being uttered by Bill Murray, who’s excellent in the role of Gonzo journalist. Boyle is also enjoyable as his dope crazed attorney.

As a whole, the movie is indeed too silly to be perceived as a success or an effective movie translation of Thompson’s writing. However, separate parts range from funny to almost great. Especially the sequences in which Thompson has to meet deadlines, but is too preoccupied with weirdness and dope frenzies. Also includes an excellent soundtrack featuring: Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

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Biography: Art Linson (1942, Chicago) was born in Chicago, but grew up in Hollywood. He graduated from UCLA Law School in 1967 but never practiced. Linson has distinguished himself in Hollywood by developing scripts and stories that attract the highest caliber talent, resulting in some of the most admired and successful motion pictures of the last two decades, including Heat, Fight Club and The Untouchables. In 1995, Linson published his first book, ‘A Pound of Flesh: Perilous Tales of How to Produce Movies in Hollywood’. His second book, ‘What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales From the Front Line’, was published in 2002.

Filmography: Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) / The Wild Life (1984)

Cult Radar: Part 9

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon is glad to explore the video trenches to find that oddball treasure between the piles of crap out there. Of Course, a treasure in this context can also be a film that’s so shockingly bad it’s worth a look, or something so bizarre that cult fans just have to see it. Join us on our quest and learn what we learn. Hopefully we’ll uncover some well-hidden cult gems.

Researched by: Jeppe Kleijngeld

Tormented (UK, 2009)

Directed by: Jon Wright
Written by: Stephen Prentice
Cast: Alex Pettyfer, April Pearson, Dimitri Leonidas

Fat schoolboy Darren got bullied to the point where he committed suicide. Tormented opens at his funeral. Not only do Darren’s tormentors don’t have any regrets whatsoever, they even throw a party to celebrate his demise. That’s just too much… Soon after, each member of the group of bullies starts receiving text messages from the dead Darren. They first think that someone is playing a prank on them, but as soon as the first body drops, they know they’re totally screwed. Tormented is a very effective horror flick that is both funny and inventively satisfying. Whether you thought high school was fun or not, this will keep you entertained for an hour and a half easily. Reviewer Kim Newman, who runs a Dungeon over at Empire Magazine gave it four stars also. It’s a recommendation.

Nude Nuns with Big Guns (USA, 2010)

Directed by: Joseph Guzman
Written by: Joseph Guzman, Robert James Hayes II
Cast: Asun Ortega, David Castro, Perry D’Marco

Violence, drugs, guns, boobs and off course lesbian sex. Nude Nuns With Big Guns is an immoral cocktail delivered by Freak Show Entertainment, the team behind the similar Run Bitch Run!. An abused nun has a vision from God. She is told to slay all sinners that are somehow connected to an elaborate heroin network, led by a money hungry padre who uses naked nuns as personnel. Sister Sarah is not supposed to show any mercy and she doesn’t! Is this entertaining? It kind of is in the sense that it is well shot and cut. Your eventual appreciation of Nude Nuns With Big Guns will depend mostly on your tolerance for graphic sex and violence featuring nuns. If this is low, you can easily deduct a star from this rating.

Hobo with a Shotgun (Canada, 2011)

Directed by: Jason Eisener
Written by: John Davies, Jason Eisener, Rob Cotterill
Cast: Rutger Hauer, Molly Dunsworth, Gregory Smith, Brian Downey

The awesome film poster promises an exploitation film pur sang and delivers. Hobo With a Shotgun was originally a fake trailer that won a Grindhouse competition organized by Robert Rodriguez. The story is about a homeless guy (Rutger Hauer) that takes on psychopathic scum in a city riddled with crime and depravity. Since it was made on a modest budget and has no Hollywood stars in its cast, it is more convincing than Tarantino’s and Rodriquez’ own Grindhouse pictures Death Proof and Planet Terror. The cheap violence gives you the real sense of watching a cult flick from the seventies. However, the sadistic violence is so excessive and beastly that it is hard to care about the characters at all, even the protagonists. The build-up is also not entirely effective; Hauer changes into a bloodthirsty vigilante in minutes, taking away some of the pleasure when he settles the score. Still, the underlying message about the human condition is well delivered and the exploitation feel is sublime; you can almost hear the exciting screams in the grindhouse theater. This hobo is certainly worth spending some loose change on.

Orcs! (USA, 2011)

Directed by: Andrew Black, James MacPherson
Written by: Anne K. Black, Jason Faller, Kynan Griffin and Justin Partridge
Cast: Adam Johnson, Renny Grames, Maclain Nelson

‘It’s an orc! No, it’s not. There is no such thing.’ A movie in which orcs show up in modern times sounds pretty horrendous. While certainly no masterpiece, Orcs! manages to entertain during its first half, which is basically a comedy about two idiot park rangers. Some jokes and The Lord of the Rings references are pretty funny. The second half is one long and tiresome battle against the orcs. This is the boring part. The costumes and special effects are laughable. All in all, don’t watch Orcs!. Just don’t!

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (USA, 1988)

Directed by: Stephen Chiodo
Written by: Charles Chiodo, Edward Chiodo, Stephen Chiodo
Cast: Grant Cramer, Suzanne Snyder, John Allen Nelson

From the special effects team behind Critters and Team America: World Police comes an original eighties classic. On a Friday night in Cove Crescent, a couple of youngsters witness a shooting star land nearby. At the place of impact, a circus tent appears, but what’s inside aint no funhouse… The acting in Killer Klowns From Outer Space may not be world class, but the production design is very well done and reason enough to check this out. It certainly beats cotton candy.

Convoy

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Sam Peckinpah
Written by: B.W.L. Norton
Cast: Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Burt Young, Ernest Borgnine

Year / Country: 1978, USA
Running Time: 104 mins.

Convoy is not really a fast carsploitation film, but more like a road adventure. It is a bit of an odd movie in director Sam Peckinpah’s oeuvre, although it does contain a slow motion shot or two and it stars Ali MacGraw and Ernest Borgnine.

The story revolves around a trucker nicknamed Rubber Duck. His Mack truck has a wild duck statue on the hood; later parodied by Tarantino in Death Proof in which Kurt Russell’s character Stuntman Mike has the same. Rubber Duck has that something that makes people leaders. You can not really put your fingers on what it is, a sort of X-factor, but Rubber Duck, charismatically portrayed by Kris Kristofferson, definitely has it.

After a bar fight with a bunch of dishonest cops, led by the crooked sheriff Cottonmouth (Borgnine), Duck and his buddies head to New Mexico where they will be safe from prosecution. Through a radio channel, other truckers pick up on what is going on and join the convoy. It grows and grows until it reaches a powerful mass. Although triggered by corruptness, the convoy is not really a political event. It just happens.

The greatest strength of Convoy lies in its screenplay. There may not be much of a story; it does sketch strong characterizations and delivers very sharp dialogues. Also impressive is the beautiful landscape cinematography. Certainly not near Peckinpah’s best, but good compared to many other standards.

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Biography: Sam Peckinpah (1925, Fresno – 1984, Inglewood) got famous for reinventing the western with movies such as The Wild Bunch and Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. His nickname would become ‘Bloody Sam’ because these movies often contained extreme violence and bloody action sequences. His career started when he got to do jobs for director Don Siegel. Then he got to direct (western) TV series. In 1961 he directed his first feature film, a western titled The Deadly Companions. However, it was with his second feature, Ride the High Country (1962), that Peckinpah really began to establish his reputation. He died of a stroke in 1984, 59 years of age.

Filmography (a selection): Broken Arrow (1958, TV episode), The Rifleman (1958-59, TV episodes), Klondike (1960, TV series), The Deadly Companions (1961), Ride the High Country (1962), Major Dundee (1965), Moon Wine (1966, TV), The Wild Bunch (1969), The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), Straw Dogs (1971), Junior Bonner (1972), The Getaway (1972), Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973), Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), The Killer Elite (1975), Cross of Iron (1977), Convoy (1978), The Osterman Weekend (1983)

The Hills Have Eyes

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Wes Craven
Written by: Wes Craven
Cast: Dee Wallace Stone, Michael Berryman, Robert Houston

Year / Country: 1977, USA
Running Time: 86 mins.

A lesser known movie by horror master Wes Craven is The Hills Have Eyes, the shocking account of a family (the Carters) trapped in the desert and attacked by a family of cannibals. It reminds very much of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, both in story as in creepy execution.

Craven builds the tension up steadily. The cannibals are not seen for a long time (only heard) and then, during the nighttime, they appear and deliver a tremendous blow to the Carter family. Afterwards, the surviving Carters strike back and eventually become as brutal as their attackers when they seek revenge.

The movie is based on the legend of Sawney Beane and his family, a feral clan who inhabited and roamed the highlands of Scotland’s East Lothian County, near Edinburgh, in the early 1400s. They captured, tormented and ate several transients. They were eventually captured on the order of Scotland’s King James and brutally executed without a trial, inspiring the aspect of the film that the Carters become bloodthirsty themselves.

This is only Craven’s third movie after the horror movie The Last House On the Left (1972) and The Fireworks Woman (1975), an adult movie he directed under the alias Abe Snake. The Hills Have Eyes is very raw and contains violence that is still shocking by today’s standard. Some of Craven’s fans even say it is his best movie. It might just be true.

Rating:

Biography: Wes Craven (1940, Cleveland – 2015, Los Angeles) is the maker of a number of classic, genre bending horror films. The debut was the gruesome The Last House On the Left in 1972. In 1984 he reinvented the youth horror genre with A Nightmare on Elm Street, which became a genre classic and a popular horror franchise. Twelve years later, he again created a commercial and critical success with Scream. This film also spawned many sequels, three of them directed by Craven and all successful. Craven also occasionally worked within other genres, such as drama/music with Music of the Heart in 1999.

Filmography (a selection): The Last House on the Left (1972) / The Hills Have Eyes (1977) / Deadly Blessing (1981) / Swamp Thing (1982) / A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) / The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1985) / The Twilight Zone (1985-86, TV-episodes) / The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) / Shocker (1989) / The People Under the Stairs (1991) / New Nightmare (1994) / Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) / Scream (1996) / Scream 2 (1997) / Music of the Heart (1999) / Scream 3 (2000) / Cursed (2005) / Red Eye (2005) / Paris, je t’aime (2006, segment: ‘Pere-Lachaise’) / My Soul to Take (2010) / Scream 4 (2011)