Tag Archives: review

Brad reviews the South Korean horror film, THE CALL (2020)!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

There’s a movie podcast I love to listen to called the “Podcast on Fire.” Kenny B and his various co-hosts focus on Asia, especially the films of Hong Kong and South Korea. They have a large back catalogue, and I’ve been catching up on their episodes related to South Korean horror. In the middle of a show on the WHISPERING CORRIDORS series, co-host Paul Quinn mentioned THE CALL, a film that was released on Netflix during the pandemic. I’m usually not a consumer of freaky horror, but his enthusiasm for the film proved infectious, so I decided I’d check it out when I got home from work.

THE CALL centers on two 28 year old women. There’s Seo-yeon (Park Shin-hye), who’s visiting her childhood home in the country when she receives a series of phone calls from 28 year old Young-sook (Jeon Jong-seo). They soon realize that Young-sook is calling Seo-yeon from the same house… just from 20 years in the past. Both with severe mommy issues, the two ladies initially seem to form a friendship. They even use their knowledge of events in the past to help each other in ways that change the future. But as you might guess, these changes come with severe consequences, and the story eventually turns into one of bloody survival!

I wasn’t expecting it, but I kept thinking of one of my favorite movies, FREQUENCY (2000), while watching THE CALL. In FREQUENCY, an adult son is able to talk to his deceased dad from 30 years in the past on their family’s old ham radio. We may not really understand the science behind it all, but we just accept it. Their discussions start out as heartwarming, and their actions that change the future seem good at first, but then eventually bad things happen. That’s pretty much what takes place in THE CALL, with the exception that these ladies are not family and the radio has been replaced by one of those late 20th century cordless phones. The heartwarming early moments eventually devolve into a lot of crying, screaming, and gaping neck wounds.

While the concept has been done before, the filmmakers do a good job of building genuine suspense. It’s one of those movies where the stakes keep getting raised, and when you think they’re as high as they can go, they’re ramped up another notch. There are a few effective jump scares here, but the primary tension is in the growing sense of dread concerning how the actions in the past will affect the present. Let’s just say that some of the characters in the present aren’t allowed to enjoy their newfound health and well-being for very long.

I wasn’t familiar with either of the lead actresses going in, but they’re both excellent. In the present time, Park Shin-hye invests enough vulnerability in her character of Seo-yeon that you can’t help but pull for her, especially as her world is continuously turned upside down. And I can’t say enough about Jeon Jong-seo, who gets the showier role in the past timeline. Her character starts out as sympathetic, but she doesn’t stay that way. It’s an unnerving character and performance.

At the end of the day, I had a good time with THE CALL. It’s been awhile since I watched a film from South Korea, so it was fun for me to jump back in. If you enjoy a good horror-suspense-thriller, this one’s an easy recommendation!

Song of the Day: Rockstar by Nat and Alex Wolff

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This is a song that I first heard when I first watched Palo Alto. 

Ever since then, it’s a song that has randomly popped into my head at certain times, usually whenever I’m possessed by the melancholy spirit that always seems to follow me around this time of year.  It’s a song that always makes me feel better, despite what happened in Palo Alto.

 

Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 1.12 “The Avenging Angel”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Hunter, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1991.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!

This week, someone wants to help out Hunter!

Episode 1.12 “The Avenging Angel”

(Dir by James Whitmore, Jr., originally aired on January 18th, 1985)

After Hunter receives an anonymous phone tip, he arrests Dr. Pierpoint (Angus Duncan) for attempting to hire a criminal known as “The Rat” to kill his wife.  When Hunter makes the arrest, he actually has to Mirandize him twice because the doctor was unconscious the first time that Hunter read him his rights.  Oh, Hunter!

Unfortunately, things fall apart at trial.  The Rat (Robert Pastorelli, whose career later fell apart after the mysterious death of his girlfriend) changes his testimony at the last minute and says that Pierpoint never hired him to kill his wife.  The case is dismissed.  Hunter is upset.  Even more upset is Arnold Morton (Robert Gray), a surveillance expert who idolizes Hunter and who makes it his mission to take down not just Pierpoint and the Rat but also defense attorney Nell Armstong (Nancy Stafford).

This was an interesting episode.  The story didn’t quite work but the idea behind it was intriguing.  Morton, who has bugged Hunter and has been following him for weeks, considers himself to be Hunter’s avenging angel.  When Hunter makes it clear that he’s not cool with the whole vigilante thing, Morton turns on him like a lover scorned.  This is like Hunter’s version of Magnum Force.

As for McCall, she spends most of this episode just trying to go on a date with her latest boyfriend, Ted (Rod Haase).  Unfortunately, Hunter keeps interrupting.  Ted is a nice guy about it but it’s pretty obvious that McCall and Hunter are meant to be together.

The highlight of this episode?  Hunter destroying his phone while searching for a bug.  In the role of Captain Dolan, John Amos got to do his whole, “Hunter, what the Hell are you doing!?” thing.  That’s always entertaining.

As I said, the episode didn’t quite work.  I never really bought that Arnold could do everything that he managed to do in this episode.  I mean, for someone who lived in an abandoned arcade and drove a broken-down van, Arnold seemed to have unlimited resources.  I will give a shout out to the show’s art department for including a poster of Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2 in Arnold’s office.

It’s always funny to me how, in every episode, Hunter has got someone trying to kill him and no one but McCall seems to care.

Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.38 “First Arrest”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Decoy, which aired in Syndication in 1957 and 1958.  The show can be viewed on Tubi!

This week, it’s the next-to-last episode Decoy!

Episode 1.38 “First Arrest”

(Dir by Arthur H. Singer, originally aired on June 30th, 1958)

Casey meets with a new, rookie policewoman (Ellen Madison) at Coney Island.  The rookie just made her first arrest and is now in tears because she’s worried that she’s ruined someone’s life.  Casey tells the story of her first assignment and what it was like to make her first arrest.

Flashback time!

The NYPD believes that a fencing operation is being run out of a Coney Island carnival sideshow.  Young and eager, Casey gets a job as an exotic dancer at the carnival.  (Calm down, boys.  She wears one of the least-revealing costumes of all time.)  Shy and insecure Willie Graff (Joshua Shelley) develops a crush on Casey.  Casey, suspecting that Willie is the fence, plays along but she starts to feel guilty as she realizes that Willie isn’t some sort of dangerous criminal.  He’s just a down-on-his-luck guy who is cutting a few corners.  He even introduces Casey to his mother (Ruth McDevitt).

When Willie gives Casey a diamond necklace, she assumes that it must be stolen but it turns out that it’s his mother’s necklace and that Mrs. Graff wants Casey to have it.  Casey is actually relieved because it seems like Willie isn’t the fence that she’s looking for.  However, then Willie gives her a mink coat and admits that he bought it from someone who had stolen it.  Though saddened, Casey forces herself to arrest Willie.

In the present, Casey assures the rookie that she will soon get used to arresting people and she won’t care about them anymore.  Yikes!

As you may have guessed, I didn’t really care much for this episode.  That idea of Casey being someone who doesn’t care about the people who she arrests pretty much goes totally against everything we’ve seen over the past 37 episodes.  The thing that always set Casey apart was that she does care.  She has to do her job but she also understands that sometimes, people just make mistakes.  Unless it’s case in which she was threatened, Casey usually doesn’t take any joy in slapping the handcuffs on someone.

As much as I hate to say it, Beverly Garland is not particularly convincing in the flashback scenes.  Young Casey is written as being continually breathless and unsure of herself.  There’s nothing about Beverly Garland’s screen presence that suggests insecurity.

This was a disappointing episode.  Next week, we’ll be finishing up Decoy and I hope it goes out on a better note than this.

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 4.8 “Injustice For All”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing 1st and Ten, which aired in syndication from 1984 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on Tubi.

Oh my, this epiosde.

Episode 4.8 “Injustice For All”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on November 23rd, 1988)

The Bulls narrowly win a game against Texas’s team when Coach Denardo decides to give the ball not to usual running back but instead to Bubba Kincaid.  Bubba is pronounced the hero of the game, which makes Jethro jealous.  During the next game, when Denardo tries to pull off the same play, Bubba insists that the ball should be given to Jethro.  Jethro fumbles the ball and Bubba falls on it, scoring once again for the Bulls.  Afterwards, Bubba assures the press that Jethro was supposed to fumble and that Jethro is actually the hero of the game.  That’s  nice!

Less nice is what happens when the press talks to Coach Denardo.  When asked whether or not he thought Texas lost because they had a black quarterback, he shrugs and says, “Maybe.  Blacks have excelled at every other position in the game.  Eventually, they’ll excel as quarterbacks.”  Denardo is branded a racist.  He insists that his words were taken out of context.

Personally …. I don’t know, it all sounds pretty racist to me.  The question was definitely racist.  Denardo wasn’t asked if he felt Texas lost because their quarterback didn’t play well.  Instead, he was specifically asked if Texas lost because their quarterback was black.  Then, Denardo’s answer is that apparently blacks are not good quarterbacks right now but they will be someday.  How is that not racist?  Denardo (and the reporter) are taking an individual player, considering nothing about him beyond his race, and then saying that’s why his team lost.  All Denardo had to say was that the quarterback struggled, just as many white quarterbacks have struggled.  Denardo could have just said, “Race doesn’t have anything to do with it.”  Instead …. well, you get the idea.

The Dobbs Corporation, which now owns the Bulls, has recently had to settle a lawsuit about their discriminatory employment practices.  Executive Michal Westwood (Paul Tuerpe) wants Denardo fired and really, Denardo probably should be fired.  But TD Parker (OJ Simpson) tries to play peacemaker.  He tells Denardo that it would help if he apologized.

“TD,” Denardo says, “I’ve got white friends and I’ve got black friends.  But if you don’t drop this, I might have one less black friend.”

And then, presumably, Denardo complimented TD for being articulate.

Meanwhile, Dr. Death’s attempt to have a one night stand with a biker chick (Beth Broderick …. wait a minute, Aunt Zelda!?) comes to an end when he meets her son and discovers that the kid is being abused by his mother’s other boyfriend.  Dr. Death takes the kid under his wing and then beats up the abuser.  Yay!  Seriously, this whole episode should have just been Dr. Death beating up that guy.

And Denardo really should have been fired.

Brad reviews BODY COUNT (1995), starring Robert Davi, Sonny Chiba, and Jan-Michael Vincent!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

In honor of Jan-Michael Vincent’s 81st birthday up there in cinema heaven, I searched Tubi to see if there were any of his films streaming that looked interesting. I came across this low-budget action movie named BODY COUNT, which apparently has also been known as CODENAME: THE SILENCER based on the poster I share above! What caught my attention is the solid B-movie cast that the film had assembled. Aside from Vincent, you also had Robert Davi, Sonny Chiba, Steven Bauer, and Brigitte Nielsen. For a guy who spent a lot of time at video rental stores in the 80’s and 90’s, I decided this movie was something I needed to investigate!

The story follows Detective Eddie Cook (Davi) and his partner Vinnie Rizzo (Bauer). After spending eight years trying to bust a couple of mobsters named the Gianelli brothers, one night the gangsters are assassinated by a hitman named Makato, played by Japanese action legend Sonny Chiba. Cook and Rizzo somehow manage to nab Makato and send him to prison. 1 year, 6 months, and 21 days later, with the help of his extremely tall and shapely partner in crime, Sybil (Brigitte Nielsen), Makato breaks out with nothing but revenge on his mind against the cops who put him behind bars.

I’m not going to sit here and pretend that BODY COUNT is some kind of forgotten gem. Because it’s not. For those that remember the era, it has the unmistakable look and feel of a mid-90s direct-to-video action film. The dialogue is awkward, the pacing is uneven at best, and there couldn’t have been much in the budget, but there’s still some nostalgic fun to be had in watching all those action veterans share the screen in the city of New Orleans, one of my favorite movie towns!

As far as the action, there are definitely some good scenes… the movie opens with one of those scenes where a guy walks away from a car in slow-mo and lights a cigar, while the car behind him explodes. That was cool! The scene where the cops confront the Chiba in a strip club, with the ensuing chase by foot spilling into the surrounding shops and rooftops was a lot of fun. The scene where Nielsen shows up to Chiba’s chain gang wearing a revealing shirt and daisy dukes and then proceeds to bust him out of prison was fun. There’s a scene where Davi is in hot pursuit of the bad guys, while hanging off of a Ryder moving truck, that eventually leads to a school bus flipping and exploding, and to be honest, it’s never made clear if a whole bunch of kids just died or not. The final scene involves runaway trolley cars. The action isn’t all perfectly handled, but there’s definitely enough here to bring a smile to your face… as long as you convince yourself that no one was on the bus!

Robert Davi is pretty good in the lead role as Detective Eddie Cook. After years of always playing supporting roles, usually as a bad guy, this had to be fun for him. He even gets to make love to his beautiful co-worker, special agent Janet Hood (Cindy Ambuehl). He takes full advantage of the scene by literally sucking on her toes, which I find somewhat awkward. Sonny Chiba looks great as the bad guy, convincingly killing with both rifles and swords. He may not speak the greatest English, but he doesn’t really have to, as he owns every scene he’s in with his charisma and intensity. The rest of the cast is fine as long as you don’t expect too much. Nielsen and Ambuehl both look great and engage in a pretty nice catfight at the end. I mentioned earlier that I watched the film in honor of Jan-Michael Vincent’s birthday. (Spoiler Alert) He doesn’t have that much screen time, and he gets pushed from a tall building about halfway through the movie and splats. I’m just saying don’t watch this if your enjoyment requires JMV to be the hero.  

At the end of the day, if you enjoy low budget action movies of the direct-to-video era, filled with lots of familiar faces, you just may have some fun with this one. It’s cheesy at times and unintentionally funny at others, but it also offers some game performances and crazy action. There are times when that’s just what I need!   

Scenes That I Love: Jack Meets Lloyd in The Shining

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The scene below is, of course, from Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 masterpiece, The Shining.

In this scene, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) stumbles into the Overlook Hotel’s ballroom, still fuming over having been accused of abusing his son.  A recovering alcoholic, Jack sits at the bar and thinks about how he would give up his soul for just one one drink.  And, on cue, Lloyd (Joe Turkel) appears.

As I was watching this scene, it occurred to me that, way back in 1980, there probably was some guy named Lloyd who saw this movie in a theater and was probably totally shocked when Jack suddenly stared straight at him and said, “Hey, Lloyd.”

The brilliance of this scene is that we never actually see Lloyd materialize.  We see him only after Jack has seen him.  So, yes, Lloyd could be a ghost.  But he could also just be a figment of Jack’s imagination.  Jack very well could just be suffering from cabin fever.  Of course, by the end of the movie, we learn the truth.

Everyone always talks about Jack Nicholson’s performance as Jack.  Some people love it and some people hate it.  (I’m in the first camp.)  However, let’s take a minute to appreciate just how totally creepy Joe Turkel is in this scene.  Turkel was a veteran character actor and had appeared in two previous Kubrick films, The Killing and Paths of Glory.  Two years after appearing in The Shining, Turkel played what may be his best-known role, Dr. Eldon Tyrell in Blade Runner.  Today, incidentally, would have been Joe Turkel’s 99th birthday.

From Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, here’s Jack Nicholson and Joe Turkel: