Posts Tagged ‘2009’


Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo

May 17th, 2011 | article by | No Comments »
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Year: 2009   Company: I & I Productions   Runtime: 84′
Director: Jessica Oreck   Writers: Jessica Oreck   Videography: Sean Price Williams
Music: Paul Grimstead, J. C. Morrison, Nate Shaw   Disc company: Factory 25   Video: 480i / 1.78:1
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Japanese   Subtitles: English   Disc: DVD5   Release Date: 05/17/2011
Reviewed from a screener provided by Factory 25.  Available for purchase through the official film site and Amazon.com.

As I get older my memory grows worse, but if I’m not mistaken Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo is the first documentary feature ever to be reviewed here at Wtf-Film.  For you outsiders, a documentary is just like a regular film, only it’s about real stuff.  I know, I know.  What will the kids think of next?

All joking aside, the sudden realization that I’ve never, in nearly a decade of writing about film, covered a documentary was quite surprising.  I watch a lot of them, after all – generally at least two a week.  It’s not enough to keep pace with the dozen or so feature films I gorge myself with on a weekly basis, but more than enough to warrant pondering how I’ve never happened to write about one before.  Better late than never, I suppose, and Jessica Oreck’s Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo is as fine a place to start as I can think of.

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Bay Rong

February 3rd, 2011 | article by | No Comments »
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a.k.a.: Clash
Year: 2009    Runtime: 98′   Director: Johnny Nguyen
Writers: Johnny Nguyen    Cinematography: Dominic Pereira    Music: Christopher Wong and various long-dead Europeans
Cast: Thanh Van Ngo, Johnny Nguyen, Lam Minh Thang, Hoang Phuc Nguyen

Trinh (Thanh Van Ngo) has been working as an assassin and girl for every opportunity under the codename “Phoenix” for a shadowy gangster-type with connections in the grey areas between espionage and crime known as Black Dragon (Hoang Phuc Nguyen) since she was a teenager. Not that she ever had much of a choice in the matter. Black Dragon ”rescued” her out of slavery as a prostitute in Cambodia and made her what she is now. Plus, he is keeping Trinh’s daughter hidden away somewhere as a very convincing argument for the woman’s loyalty.

Still, her life is getting to Trinh, and she only wants out and start a less violent existence somewhere with her daughter. Black Dragon even seems willing to grant Trinh her wish, there are just a tiny handful of missions she has to finish for him first.

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Harpoon: Whale Watching Massacre

December 3rd, 2010 | article by | 2 Comments »
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Year: 2009   Runtime: 84′   Director: Júlíus Kemp
Writer: Sjón Sigurdsson   Cinematography: Jean-Noël Mustonen
Music: Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson   Cast: Pihla Viitala, Nae, Terence Anderson,
Miranda Hennessy, Aymen Hamdouchi

Iceland. A very international group of future murder victims (oops, spoiler) goes on a whale watching tour. All seems well – though some of the tourists are a bit annoying - but in truth the more unpleasant parts of the trip are already starting with the only sailor on board beside the ship’s captain (Gunnar “Leatherface” Hansen) raping one of the female tourists in his cabin. Things don’t exactly improve when a freak accident with a poky stick and a flying drunk Frenchman lethally wounds the captain. Seeing the mess, sailor Rape jumps into the emergency boat and flees, leaving the tourists to their fate.

It seems like a fortunate occurrence when a boat with a friendly enough acting rescuer on board appears only a little bit later. The tourists are getting somewhat nervous when their helper doesn’t ferry them into the next harbour, but instead transports them to a rusty old whaling ship, where they meet his son and wife. It doesn’t take five minutes until the charming family members show their true face and gorily dispatch of tourist number one. People living on a ship need to eat too, it seems, and what could be more tasty than other people when you’re not allowed to slaughter whales anymore?

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Avatar

December 2nd, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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Year: 2009   Company: 20th Century Fox   Runtime: 162′ / 171′ / 178′
Director: James Cameron   Writer: James Cameron   Cinematography: Mauro Fiore
Music: James Horner  Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver,
Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel Moore, Wes Studi
Disc company: 20th Century Fox   Video: 1080p 1.78:1    Audio: DTS-HD Master 5.1 English,
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (English, French, Portuguese, Spanish), Dolby Digital 2.0 English
(descriptive audio)    Subtitles: English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Disc: Dual Layer BD50   Release Date: 04/22/2010   Product link: Amazon.com

To say that I didn’t see Avatar when it was in its original theatrical run (or its more recent re-release) is an understatement – I’ve avoided it outright until today.  Of the billions upon billions of dollars it has reaped in ticket receipts and home video sales not a single penny is mine, something of which I remain quite pleased.  It’s not that I harbor a particular hatred for James Cameron, repulsed as I may have been by the melodrama of his Titanic.  It’s not that the idea of an epic special effects extravaganza didn’t appeal to me – it does.  It’s the cultural phenomenon of Avatar, the millions of people flocking to see it around the world and the hundreds of critics singing its praises, from which I wish to remain distant.

I imagine that, had I seen Avatar in the midst of that sensation, my opinion of it would have been contrarian by principle alone.  So I’ve waited.  Now, almost a year after its initial run began and with two home video releases behind it, it’s safe to say that whatever unjustified negativity the film’s success fostered within me has subsided, and I can finally be unbiased – or as unbiased as one can be about something so saturated as Avatar.  At least the cell phone cross-promotions seem to be over…

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Resurrecting the Street Walker

September 24th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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company: 2nd Floor Productions
year: 2009
runtime: 80′
director: Ozgur Uyanik
cast: James Powell, Tom Shaw,
Joanne Ferguson, Christina Helena,
Pinar Ögün
writer: Ozgur Uyanik
cinematography: Paul Englefield
music: Edwin Sykes
Not on home video in the USA

James Parker (James Powell) is an aspiring filmmaker working as an unpaid serf aka “runner” for a shady little movie production company to get his foot in the door of professional film work by letting himself be exploited. This job and the fact that his dreams of becoming a filmmaker don’t seem to lead anywhere  put quite a strain on him and the relationship with his family, who are the ones paying for his livelihood after all.

James’ friend, the film student Marcus (Tom Shaw), films him in his attempts at making it, and what Marcus is shooting is the basis of the documentary Resurrecting The Street Walker purports to be. Intercut with Marcus’ footage are interviews with Marcus himself and the other people in James’ life hinting on something dreadful James seems to have done.

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Salvage

June 29th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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film rating:
disc rating:
companies: Hoax Films,
The UK Film Council, BBC Films, Northwest
Vision and Media, Digital Departures,
The Liverpool Culture Company
year: 2009
runtime: 75′
director: Lawrence Gough
cast: Neve McIntosh, Shaun Dooley,
Linzey Cocker, Dean Andrews,
Shahid Ahmed, Trevor Hancock
writers: Lawrence Gough,
Colin O’Donnell and Alan Pattinson
cinematography: Simon Tindall
music: Stephen Hilton
Reviewed from a screener provided
by Revolver Entertainment
Order this film from Amazon.com

Salvage is due for release on DVD from Revolver Entertainment on July 6th, and is currently available for pre-order through Amazon.com and other online retailers.

Over the past decade the British Isles have become ground zero for modern low budget horror.  Motivated by the success of Danny Boyle’s comparatively lavish 28 Days Later (produced for around $10 million) aspiring filmmakers looking to cut their teeth on the genre have been pouring from the woodwork as of late.  2009’s Salvage follows in the frugal footsteps of The Dead Outside and Colin, and makes for a promising if imperfect feature film debut for writer and director Lawrence Gough.

Salvage begins quietly enough, with teenager Jodie (Linzey Cocker, Is Anybody There?) traveling to a quiet suburban cul-de-sac to spend Christmas with her divorced mother Beth (Neve McIntosh, Bodies).  None too pleased with the prospect of spending the holiday with her mother to begin with, things become more complicated when Jodie happens upon the woman in the midst of a casual sexual encounter with Kieran (Shaun Dooley, the Red Riding trilogy).  Understandably perturbed by the sight of her mother bonking about with an unknown gent (and on Christmas Eve, no less!), Jodie storms out of her mother’s house and across the street to spend the rest of the holiday with one of her childhood friends.
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Survival of the Dead

June 4th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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rating:
company: Artfire Films,
Romero-Grunwald Productions and
Devonshire Productions
year: 2009
runtime: 90′
director: George A. Romero
cast: Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh,
Kathleen Munroe, Devon Bostick,
Richard Fitzpatrick, Athena Karkanis,
Stefano DeMatteo, Joris Jarsky
writers: George A. Romero
cinematography: Adam Swica
music: Robert Carli
Order this film from Amazon.com
Blu-ray | DVD

Survival of the Dead is currently out in limited theatrical release through Magnet Releasing, and is available for online rental or pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD through Amazon.com.

Oh no.  It’s the zombie-pocalypse.  Again.  People are dying, society is crumbling, and wi-fi coverage is spotty at best.  I’ll be the first to give George Romero credit for his accomplishments, and its hard to overstate his importance to independent film and modern existentialist horror.  But it’s been a long time since Romero’s ghouls first shambled ‘cross the silver screen.  Four decades and five sequels after the fact the people, places and things are all too familiar, and Romero’s once brave new zombiefied world is less compelling than ever before.

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