I just read that Olivia Newton-John passed away earlier today. She was 73 years old.
Here she is, performing You’re The One That I Want with John Travolta at the climax of 1978’s Grease. No matter what else you may think about this film (and, to be honest, it’s not one of my favorite musicals, just because of the way that director Randal Kleiser framed most of the dance numbers), you can’t deny that both Olivia and Travolta poured their hearts into this climax.
In Minamata, Johnny Depp plays Eugene Smith, a real-life photographer who found fame taking pictures for Life Magazine. Taking place in 1971, the film opens with Smith famous but burned out. He spends most of his time in his run-down apartment or walking the streets of New York. His camera is always with him, a tool of both his art and a symbol of his detachment. Smith can capture the world in a photograph but he’s still not sure that he wants to be a part of it. Smith is outspoken, eccentric, and ultimately a bit of an idealist who hides behind a cloak of cynicism.
When Smith is asked to come to the Japanese city of Minamata so that he can photograph the effects of Mercury poisoning on the citizens, he agrees to do so. Armed with only his camera and aided only by his translator, Aileen (Minami), Smith discovers a community that has been ravaged by environmental pollution. Smith tries to bring the story of Minamata to the world, despite the efforts of one of Japan’s largest corporations to silence him.
As far as films go, Minamata isn’t bad. It feels a lot like a throwback to the old social problem films of the late 70s and the early 80s. Watching the film, it was easy to draw comparisons to similar films like The China Syndrome, Silkwood, A Civil Action, Erin Brockovich, and even Promised Land. Like the characters at the heart of those films, Eugene Smith is an unlikely crusader but when he sees a heartless corporation destroying lives, he feels that he has no choice but to act. The film’s narrative momentum occasionally sputters and there are a few too many scenes of Smith haranguing his editor but the film’s heart is in the right place. Johnny Depp gives a surprisingly sincere performance as Eugene Smith, playing him as someone who is a bit of a natural screw-up but who still wants to make the world a better place. The film’s best scenes are the ones in which Smith tries to convince the camera-shy villagers to allow him to document what’s happening to them. Minamata is at its best when it just allows Depp (as Smith) to interact with other people.
Of course, by this point, Minamata is probably best known for the drama that went on behind-the-scenes. Minamata was filmed in 2019 and made its debut at the Berlin International Film Festival in February of 2020. Distribution rights were eventually purchased by MGM and it was originally slated to be released in 2021. However, after Amber Heard accused Depp of domestic abuse, MGM took the film off of its schedule. Due to the bad publicity surrounding Depp, it appeared that the film would be buried. Depp’s fans reacted by voting for Minamata to win the Oscars Fan Favorite contest. Though Minamata ultimately came in third place, that’s a good showing for a film that hardly anyone had seen and which hadn’t even been distributed in the United States. The victory of the Snyder Cut may have gotten all the attention but Minamata‘s strong showing served to remind Hollywood that, despite the accusations, Johnny Depp still had a strong fanbase.
It’s tempting to say that Minamata got its release due to the outcome of the Depp/Heard libel trial. It was actually released on Hulu while the trial was still going on. Though Minamata is probably destined to be mostly remembered as a footnote in Oscar history, it is a film that shows that Johnny Depp can still give a good performance when he has the right material.
If you’ve ever wanted to see Zac Efron covered in flies, Gold is the film for you!
Actually, I’m being perhaps a bit more snarky than I should be. Gold is actually a pretty good movie and Zac Efron deserves a lot of credit for trying something different. That said, when all is said and done, I think the thing that most people will remember about this movie will be the flies. Efron plays a character who spends several days stranded in the desert. As we all know from watching any of the films that Clint Eastwood made with Sergio Leone, the desert is full of flies and there’s nothing they like more than to land on the blisters on someone’s sun-baked face. So, it makes sense that Efron spends the majority of the film dealing with flies. Of course, he also has to deal with feral desert dogs, a mysterious stranger who may or may not exist, and a freak dust storm.
Gold takes place in the near future. Gold was filmed in Australia and, in many ways, it seems to take place in the same cinematic universe as the first Mad Max. It’s the early days of a dystopia, when there’s still enough comforts around for people to pretend that things can still be normal. People still watch television. They still drive cars. They still use telephones. There’s still some sort of government that is supposedly in charge of things. Society still exists but all around are clues that it is in the process of collapsing. Things are on the verge of changing and they won’t be for the better.
Zac Efron plays Virgil, a man who wants to go to some place known as the Compound. Keith (played by Anthony Hayes) has been hired to drive Virgil through the desert. From the start, Keith and Virgil don’t get along. Keith gets angry at Virgil for wasting water. He gets even angrier when Virgil turns up the air conditioning in Keith’s truck and causes the motor to overheat. However, when Keith and Virgil come across a giant gold nugget in the desert, they become reluctant partners. When Keith heads to another town to get an excavator so they can dig up the gold, Virgil remains in the desert. His job is to guard the gold, though one has to wonder who he thinks he’s guarding it from. Virgil is literally in the middle of nowhere.
Keith leaves Virgil with a set of instructions of how to survive in the desert. However, within hours of Keith leaving, Virgil starts to lose it. He doesn’t have enough water. He doesn’t have enough food. Keith has taken the truck so it’s not like Virgil could go anywhere, even if he was willing to abandon the gold. There are feral dogs all around. There are flies on Virgil’s face. And there are other scavengers in the desert as well….
There’s really not much of a story to Gold. Virgil waits in the desert and loses his mind, all because he’s not willing to surrender that gold. He’s a victim of his own greed, which admittedly is not the most original idea in the world. (Consider the case of Fred C. Dobbs, for instance.) That said, you do have to admire Efron’s willingness to allow himself to look absolutely terrible on screen. From the flies to the dust storm to the scorching sun, the film goes out of its way to destroy Efron’s good looks but there’s a bigger meaning to it beyond Efron’s well-known desire to be taken seriously as an actor. With each fly and speck of dust that lands on Efron’s face, Gold reminds the viewer that the desert will always win. The desert and the animals that call it home don’t care about gold and they certainly don’t care about their prey. In the desert, it’s all about survival. Civilization may collapse but the desert will remain forever.
Visually, there’s a harsh beauty to Gold. The desert is both frightening and fascinating at the same time and the scenes of Efron frame against the landscape really do drive home the film’s point. One way or the other, the desert will always win.
I was recently reading the IMDb trivia page for Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film, Taxi Driver.
Taxi Driver is often held up as the being the ultimate New York horror story as well as being the quintessential Martin Scorsese/Robert De Niro collaboration. In fact, the film is so identified with Scorsese, De Niro, and screenwriter Paul Schrader that it is easy to forget that it actually took a while for Scorsese and De Niro to become involved with the project. Quite a few different directors showed interest in Schrader’s script before Scorsese signed on. And, even though the role will always be associated with him, De Niro was not the only actor considered for the role of Travis Bickle.
That’s what brought me to the IMDb trivia page. I wanted to see who else was considered for the role of Travis. Here’s the list that I found: Jeff Bridges, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Warren Beatty, Burt Reynolds, Ryan O’Neal, Peter Fonda, Al Pacino, Jon Voight, Robert Blake, David Carradine, Richard Dreyfuss, Christopher Walken, Alain Delon, James Caan, Roy Scheider, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Elliott Gould, Alan Alda, and George Hamilton. That’s quite a list! And. for the most part, I don’t buy it for a second.
Don’t get me wrong. It is known that Al Pacino was sent the script before Scorsese came on board. And Scorsese himself has said that he offered the role to Dustin Hoffman. (Hoffman says he turned down the role because Scorsese’s intensity freaked him out.) Jeff Bridges was also a possibility and, if you read Schrader’s script and force yourself to forget about De Niro’s performance, you can actually imagine Bridges in the role. I could also imagine a youngish Martin Sheen in the role. He had just played Charlie Starkweather in Badlands so one can imagine him being considered for Travis. Peter Fonda and Robert Blake seem possible as well. Even David Carradine.
But some of the other names on that list …. Alain Delon? Paul Newman? Alan Alda? GEORGE HAMILTON?
This George Hamilton?
Listen, I like George Hamilton. He’s a good comedic actor. And I know that there were a lot of directors who took a look at Paul Schrader’s script and I also know that some of Travis’s most iconic moments — like the whole “You talkin’ to me?” scene — were improvised by De Niro and were not in the original script. Taxi Driver could have gone in a lot of different directions. But I’m just going to say right now that there is no way that George Hamilton was ever considered for the role of Travis Bickle. It’s totally possible that Hamilton was considered for another role in the film. I could imagine him as the presidential candidate, Charles Palantine. I could also imagine him in the role of Tom, Palantine’s campaign manager. Perhaps he was offered one of those roles and someone, reading that George Hamilton had turned down Taxi Driver, got it into their head that he was considered for Travis.
Or maybe …. someone just made the whole thing up. I enjoy the IMDb trivia pages but I’ve come across a lot of information that simply is not true. Despite what the page for the original Halloween says, I refuse to believe that John Belushi was considered for the role of Dr. Loomis. For that matter, I also refuse to believe that Bill Murray was a runner-up for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars. Sorry, IMDb trivia people. I just don’t buy it.
Arthur Bremer
Here’s what we do know. Paul Schrader was originally inspired to create the character of Travis Bickle by Arthur Bremer, a non-descript 21 year-old Midwesterner who, in 1972, shot and nearly killed presidential candidate, George Wallace. After the shooting, police turned up a diary in which Bremer wrote about his desire to be someone. According to Bremer, he shot Wallace not as a political act but because he wanted to be famous. Schrader later said that, while writing the script, the story became less about Bremer and more about Schrader’s own social isolation.
The script was optioned by the production team of Tony Bill and Julia and Michael Phillips. They had just recently produced the Oscar-winning The Sting. Originally, Tony Bill wanted to make his directorial debut with the film. That was when the script was sent to Al Pacino. Pacino turned down the role, reportedly because he didn’t want to work with a first-time director. (Tony Bill, a former actor, later directed several films, most of which appeared to be taking place in a totally separate universe from Schrader’s vision of urban Hell.)
The script was eventually read by Brian De Palma, who voiced an interest in directing the film. DePalma’s choice for the role of Travis Bickle? Jeff Bridges.
Today, it might be hard to imagine the affable, laid-back Jeff Bridges as Travis Bickle but, if you read the script, it’s easy to see why De Palma considered him for the role. Travis was written as being someone from the middle of the country, someone who was out-of-place in New York City. Travis was meant to be lost in New York. (Though Travis does say that he’s from the midwest in Scorsese’s film, Robert De Niro himself remains the prototypical New Yorker.) At least initially, Bridges would have been a bit less obviously unstable than De Niro. As good as Taxi Driver is, it always seems a bit strange that Betsy would agree to go out with De Niro’s Travis but it’s a bit easier to believe that she would take a chance on Jeff Bridges, with his charming smile and likable manner. Bridges’s descent into madness would have been all the more devastating because he was such an outwardly affable presence. I’m not saying it would have worked but I can still see what De Palma would have been going for in his version of Taxi Driver.
That said, De Palma did not make Taxi Driver. He instead decided to do Carrie. A young Steven Spielberg briefly showed interest in Taxi Driver (the mind boggles) before decided to do Jaws instead. Eventually, after being introduced to Schrader by De Palma, Martin Scorsese agreed to direct the film. After getting turned down by Dustin Hoffman, Scorsese offered the role to De Niro.
As for the rest of the cast, Rock Hudson would have been an interesting choice for the role of Sen. Palantine but he turned down the script because he was busy with a television show. There was also some talk of casting former New York Mayor John Lindsay in the role but, in the end, the role was given to a writer named Leonard Harris.
The role of Tom was originally offered to Harvey Keitel. Because Keitel wanted to play the pimp, Albert Brooks ended up as Tom. Because there wasn’t much to Tom in the script, it was felt that, as a comedian, Brooks could bring some sort of life to the character. Indeed, Brooks reportedly improvised the majority of his lines.
Despite the fact that producer Julia Phillips wanted to cast Farrah Fawcett in the role, Martin Scorsese selected Cybil Shepherd for the role of Betsy. If you believe the IMDb, Meryl Streep was offered the role but turned it down. (If I sound skeptical, it’s because Streep hadn’t even made her film debut at the time that Taxi Driver went into production.) Glenn Close, Jane Seymour, and Susan Sarandon auditioned for the role. Mia Farrow reportedly wanted the role but was turned down by Scorsese.
As everyone knows, Jodie Foster played the 13 year-old prostitute, Iris, in Taxi Driver. A man named John Hinckley, Jr. was so obsessed with Foster’s performance that he went the same route as Travis Bickle and attempted to assassinate the president in an effort to impress her. Foster, however, was only picked after Scorsese saw several up-and-coming actresses. Reportedly, due to the success of The Exorcist, Linda Blair was seriously considered for the role. Tatum O’Neal was also considered, after winning her Oscar for Paper Moon. Scorsese came close to casting Melanie Griffith but then Tippi Hedren read the script and nixed the idea. Among the others who supposedly read for Iris: Mariel Hemingway, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Heather Locklear, Kristy McNichol, Carrie Fisher, Ellen Barkin, Kim Basinger, Geena Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Brooke Shields, Debra Winger, Rosanna Arquette, Bo Derek, and Kim Cattrall.
Finally, actor George Memmoli was injured on the set of another film, which led to Scorsese playing the passenger who talks to Travis about murdering his wife.
In the end, the right director and the right cast were selected and Taxi Driver became a classic of urban paranoia. Still, it’s always fun to play What If. On Earth-2, someone is watching Jeff Bridges, Rock Hudson, Jane Seymour, and Melanie Griffith in Brian De Palma’s Taxi Driver. And, on Earth-3, George Hamilton is polishing his Oscars and thinking about how playing Travis Bickle changed his life.
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Director and screenwriter Nicholas Ray was born 111 years ago today, in Galesville, Wisconsin. He would go on to become one of the most influential American directors of all time, making independently-minded films that celebrated rebels and iconoclasts. The directors of the French New Wave loved him and for good reason.
Today, we celebrate the life and legacy of Nicholas Ray with….
4 Shots From 4 Nicholas Ray Films
In A Lonely Place (1950, dir by Nicholas Ray, DP: Burnett Guffey)
Johnny Guitar (1954, dir by Nicholas Ray, DP: Harry Stradling)
Rebel Without A Cause (1955, dir by Nicholas Ray, DP: Ernest Haller)
Party Girl (1958, dir by Nicholas Ray, DP: Robert J. Bronner)
Ted K. is a film about a man who lives in a cabin in the Montana wilderness. The man was a child genius who attended Harvard University when he was only 16. He worked briefly as a professor but, in the early 70s, he started to retreat from society. He moved into a tiny cabin, one that he had previously built with his brother. The man’s name is Ted Kaczynski. He would later be known as the Unabomber. As of today, he is known as prisoner #04475-046 at a Colorado supermax prison.
When Ted K. begins, Ted (played by Sharlto Copley) has been living in the cabin for close to ten years. He is usually unshaven and unbathed. He loves the wilderness but he hates all evidence of technology. He screams at jets as they fly overhead. When a group of vacationers ride their snowmobiles across his property, Ted responds by breaking into their house and taking an axe to their snowmobiles. Ted carries on an inner dialogue with himself, talking about how technology and progress are destroying the world. He also talks about how he can’t handle the idea of ever having to take orders from a woman. Ted hunts a rabbit and then thanks its spirit for giving up its life so that he could eat. I’ve never quite understood people who do that. Is the spirt of the rabbit supposed to be happy that its body is getting eaten just because the schmuck who shot it offered up some halfass prayer?
Sometimes, Ted goes into town and he calls his mom on an old payphone, one that regularly steals his coins. He usually calls to demand money because Ted is incapable of holding down a job. Ted yells at his mom, blaming her for his lack of social skills and sexual experience. Ted swears that he will never again speak to his brother. Later, Ted calls his brother to beg for money and swears that he will never again speak to their mother. When he’s not in front of the payphone, he can be found buying tools at the local hardware store. He also sometimes goes out so that he can peep through windows and point his rifle at anyone who he sees. He gets especially upset when he sees a man and woman about to make love. Little seems to anger Ted more than knowing that there are actually happy people in the world.
In short, Ted Kaczynski is a loser, an incel who is bitter about having never been able to get his once promising life together. He hates everyone, with the exception of the always-sympathetic girlfriend who pops up in his fantasies. Every loser needs someone or something to blame and Ted challenges his self-loathing and his sexual frustration into rage against modern society. When he first appears in the film, Ted has already made his first bomb. As the film progresses, he starts to send his bombs out. Some, he mails. Some, he leaves sitting in front of computer stores and university buildings. Eventually, he becomes the most wanted man in the country but Ted has an offer to make to the authorities. If they just let him publish his manifesto, he’ll call of his reign of terror….
Ted K tells the story of Kaczynski’s life in Montana, often using passages lifted straight from Kaczynski’s journals to illustrate his inner thoughts. It’s an interesting film because, on the one hand, it’s clearly sympathetic to Kaczynski’s feelings about technology. The film starts with a slow motion shot that makes the snowmobiles plowing through Montana wilderness look like an invading, faceless army. Shots of blissful and silent nature are contrasted with shots of lumber mills, airplanes, and humming electrical wires. On the other hand, the film never makes the mistake of trying to turn Kaczynski himself into a heroic character. Ted is a creep from the minute that he first appears and he assures us in his own words that his main goal is to get revenge on a world that he feels has rejected him. He’s a misogynist who alienates everyone that he meets and who tries to hide his insecurity behind a projected air of arrogance. There are a few scenes in which Ted lowers his mask just enough to reveal his loneliness and that he’s someone who is incapable of understanding how communication works. He desperately wants to be able to talk to people and have someone in his life but he doesn’t know how to do it. His natural awkwardness gets in the way every time. Ted turns his anger out on the world. He may claim that he’s angry with what technology had done to society but the truth of the matter is that he’s angry at a world that has passed him by. Retreating to a cabin to seek enlightenment is charming when someone is in their 20s but far less impressive when that person is nearly 40.
With a two-hour running time, Ted K runs a bit long. The film’s final 30 minutes seem to move slowly, largely because we already know how the story is going to end. That said, Sharlto Copley makes Ted into a compelling character without ever making the mistake of trying to make him sympathetic. Director Tony Stone and cinematographer Nathan Corbin gives us some truly striking shots of the Montana wilderness. (At the very least, one can see why Ted would view it as being a potential paradise.) Blanck Mass provides a wonderfully ominous score, one that puts the viewer straight into Ted’s mind. Ted K deserves credit for both its refusal to idealize Kaczynski and also its attempt to understand just what exactly causes him to take the actions that he did. It makes for a valuable study of a man who has influenced terrorists on both the Left and the Far Right.
Incidentally, I once took a philosophy class where the TA was a huge Kaczynski fan. He suggested that everyone read the Unabomber Manifesto and “judge it by what it says, not what the author did.” I couldn’t get past the first paragraph.
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
On this date, 94 years ago, Andy Warhol was born. Today, we mark this occasion with….
4 Shots From 4 Andy Warhol Films
Empire (1965, dir by Andy Warhol)
Vinyl (1965, dir by Andy Warhol)
Poor Little Rich Girl (1965, dir by Andy Warhol)
Chelsea Girls (1966, dir by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey)
This week’s edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse trailers is dedicated to Umberto Lenzi, who was born, on this date, in 1931. Lenzi was one of the most prolific of the Italian directors who came to prominence in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. A craftsman at heart, he directed films in every genre. Admittedly, he was never quite the critical favorite that Argento, Margheriti, Deodato, Bava, Fulci, and Soavi were. That’s a polite way of acknowledging that Umberto Lenzi was responsible for a few very bad films. But he directed some good ones, as well. Even if he’s not as acclaimed as some of his contemporaries, I think every Italian horror fan has at least one or two Lenzi films that they will happily defend to the grave.
Today, in honor of Lenzi’s life and work, here are 6 trailers for 6 Umberto Lenzi films! These trailers, by the way, could be considered NSFW so watch them at your own discretion.
I will be the first to admit that I have shared this trailer quite often on this site. What can I say? I just love the way everyone keeps going, “Spasmo! Spamso!” Spasmo is giallo, one with the a plot that will keep you guessing.
2. The Tough Ones (1976)
Though Lenzi is probably best-remembered for his horror films, he also directed his share of violent, French Connection-inspired crime films. The Tough Ones is a good example.
3. From Corleone to Brooklyn (1979)
From Corleone to Brooklyn is another one of Lenzi’s crime films. While Corleone is a town in Sicily, there’s little doubt that the main purpose of the title was to trick people into thinking that this film was somehow connected to The Godfather.
4. Eaten Alive (1980)
Eaten Alive was one of the many cannibal films that Lenzi directed. This is actually one of the better examples of that rather icky genre. It’s certainly superior to Lenzi’s own Cannibal Ferox. Ivan Rassimov as Jim Jones turns out to be perfect casting. The trailer below is actually an edited version of the original trailer.
5. Nightmare City (1980)
This was Lenzi’s best-known contribution to the zombie genre. Uniquely, for the time, Lenzi’s zombies were fast and clever. The film was not acclaimed when it was originally released but it has since been cited as an influence on many recent zombie films. This is probably Lenzi’s most effective film as a director, even if the ending will probably have you rolling your eyes.
6. Nightmare Beach (1989)
Finally, in one of his final films, Lenzi brought together the spring break genre with the slasher genre. There’s some debate over how much of this film was directed by Lenzi and how much by a mysterious figure known as Harry Kirkpatrick. When I reviewed this film and mentioned the controversy, the film’s star, Nicolas De Toth, replied that Lenzi was definitely the one who directed. As he would definitely be in the best position to know, that’s good enough for me!
In the future, the world has been ravaged by a combination of nuclear war and infertility. The face of diplomacy has changes as well. Instead of wasting time with negotiations, treaties, or lengthy wars, countries now settle disputes through giant robot combat.
In fact, robot combat is the most popular sport in the world! The men who sit inside the head of the giant robots and who push the buttons that make the robots do their thing have all become national heroes. They’re even more beloved than the robots that they control. America loves Achilles (Gary Graham). Russia loves Alexander (Paul Koslo). Every fight is observed by hundreds of spectators sitting in the stands.
That becomes a problem when Achilles and his robot accidentally fall backwards and land on top of the stands. Not only does this mean that Russia will claim ownership of Alaska but it also kills a lot of people who were only there because they thought they would get to watch some good old-fashioned giant robot combat. Achilles is so upset that he announces his retirement. He leaves robot combat camp and walks around the most depressing, dreariest city imaginable. It’s hard not to notice that the city is full of signs imploring couples to have as many children as possible. The humans would seem to be on the way out, regardless of what happens with the giant robots.
Fortunately, Achilles’s retirement only lasts for a day or two. Once he learns that he’s going to be replaced by Athena (Anne-Marie Johnson), Achilles returns to fight Alexander. It could be that Achilles is in love with Athena. It could also just be evidence that it takes a lot more than a nuclear war to wipe out misogyny and Achilles can’t handle a woman controlling his robot. Who knows? Achilles is determined to redeem himself but Athena still wants her chance and it turns out that there is a double agent who is giving information to Alexander and the Russians!
Featuring a plot that was apparently made up on the spot, 1990’s Robot Jox is about as silly as a movie can get. Several scenes are devoted to showing Athena and the other young robot pilots going through their training and it’s hard not to notice that none of it actually has anything to do with sitting inside the head of a giant robot and telling it what to do. Instead, they do a lot of physical stuff, which makes no sense because piloting a robot would be a mental task, not a physical one. But it gives the film an excuse to put a bunch of toned 20 year-olds in skin tight outfits and that was probably the main concern. As for the double agent subplot, there’s only two possible suspects and it’s not difficult to guess which one is guilty. The actors, for the most part, go through the motions though Michael Alldredge has some good moments as Achilles’s trainer and Paul Koslo is a blast as the maniacally evil Alexander. In the future, it’s just not enough to destroy a man’s giant robot. You have to laugh about it, too.
But, to be honest, Robot Jox is one of those movies that is so extremely silly that it’s impossible not to kind of like it. The special effects may be on the cheap side but the robots themselves are actually fairly impressive and it’s hard not to smile at the sight of them stiffly walking across the combat area. The film’s finale features not only a giant chainsaw that is stored inside the crotch of one of the robot’s but also a bizarre and impromptu trip into space. I’m not really sure why the robots flew into space but it really doesn’t matter. No one is going to watch Robot Jox for a coherent story. This is a film that people watch because they want to see giant robots fighting. And, on that front, Robot Jox delivers.
Previous Guilty Pleasures
Last night, Erin and I started to watch a film called Drawn Into The Night on Tubi. Erin abandoned the film after 10 minutes but I stayed for the whole thing!
Why Was I Watching It?
According to the film’s description on Tubi, the film was about a cop who goes undercover in a high school in order to investigate the disappearance of three cheerleaders. I love film about undercover high school cops and I figured that Erin would enjoy critiquing whether or not the film was an accurate representation of the high school cheerleader experience. Anyway, Erin stopped watching after 10 minutes but I stuck with the film because I feel guilty whenever I stop watching a movie before the end credits start.
After the film was finished, I did a little research and I discovered that Drawn Into The Night (which Tubi claimed was a 2022 release) was actually a heavily edited version of a 2010 film called A Lure: Teenage Fight Club. Teenage Fight Club was a little over 90 minutes long. Drawn Into The Night had a running time of 67 minutes. Just judging from the reviews that I read of Teenage Fight Club, it would appear that a lot of nudity and excessive violence was edited out of the film that became Drawn Into The Night. That’s fine by me. I love a good thriller but I’ve grown a little bored with violence for the sake of violence.
What Was It About?
After three high school cheerleaders mysteriously disappear, a detective named Maggie (Jessica Sonneborn) goes undercover as a high school student. She joins the school’s field hockey team and makes a quick frenemy out of spoiled Brittany (Augie Duke). An invitation to a rave turns out to instead be an invitation to be forced to take part in a teenage fight club, where the fights are to the death!
What Worked?
The film was short. That may sound like a back-handed compliment but, after sitting through countless films that rua over two hours despite not having enough story for 30 minutes, it was kind of nice to see a film that wrapped everything up in 67 minutes. Of course, some of that is because this was a heavily edited version of a longer film but no matter. It still worked!
The film had some nicely atmospheric shots of people running through the night, often being pursued by an inbred hillbilly. Some of those scenes had a dream-like intensity to them.
Augie Duke gave a good performance as the hilariously self-centered Brittany.
What Did Not Work?
Because of the way the film was edited, there were several continuity errors. One character, in particular, is seen in one location just to be show up in a totally different location one jump cut later. I’m going to guess the original version of the film included a scene of her arriving at the different location. In the edited version, she just appears to teleport from place to place.
Maggie going undercover would have been more interesting if not for the fact that all of the high school students already appeared to be in their 20s. Despite the fact that three cheerleaders had mysteriously vanished just a few days previously, none of the other students at the school seemed to be the concerned about it. At my high school, if someone popular was kidnapped, people definitely would have been talking about it.
The identity of the main villain seemed to come out of nowhere but I am, once again, going to assume that’s because of how this version of the film were edited down from the original version.
“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments
One character has asthma and you better believe that I was cringing when she was trying to catch her breath while running away.
I did sneak out to a few all-night parties when I was in high school and I usually did ruthlessly critique the type of car my older friends drove so I could definitely relate to Brittany. But I’m happy to say that I was never forced to take part in a teenage fight club.
Lessons Learned
When there’s a kidnapping spree going on, don’t accept invitations to parties in the middle of nowhere.
Through the Shattered Lens 