Hello, good Monday evening! Welcome back, and thanks for stopping by to visit my blog on cinema. So what did your weekend plans entail? My partner Warren and I took a road trip down to Minneapolis and back on Saturday so I could meet someone that I had agreed to purchase some DVDs from. So, we got up early on Saturday morning around 7am and got ready and hit the road. Our first stop, in Coon Rapids, was to pick up the 37 DVDs that I had purchased from a seller on Craigslist. These people were moving and wanted to get rid of their DVD collection, so I lucked out and found their advertisement. There were a few gems on this list, DVDs that were out of print and hard to find. I got all of the DVDs for $100, less than $2.75 per DVD. The diamond in the rough was “Piranha” which I have wanted to add to my collection for awhile now. Here’s a sampling of a few of the DVDs that I purchased.
PIRANHA: “Operation Razorteeth,” a government project involving the breeding of mutant piranhas, gets way out of hand when the fish raid a lake at a summer camp for kids in this Roger Corman-produced, Joe Dante-directed classic. Heather Menzies stars as Maggie McKeown, an insurance investigator out to trace a missing teenage couple who have disappeared in the woods. With the help of a drunken recluse, Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman), they come across a supposedly deserted army base inhabited by Dr. Robert Hoak (Kevin McCarthy) who has been breeding the deadly fish in secret. In their hunt for the missing couple McKeown and Grogan drain the army pool, unleashing millions of mutant piranhas into the lake of a nearby children’s summer camp and a newly opened tourist resort. Smart exploitation with a ludicrous and clever script co-written by John Sayles, this drive-in answer to JAWS is full of film references and plenty of B-movie thrills (gore and nudity). PIRANHA is the kind of movie they don’t make anymore–and better yet–it holds up well.
BLOOD SIMPLE: When a bar owner discovers that one of his employees is having an affair with his wife, a complex web of deceit and double crosses ensues in a small Texas town. The Coen brothers’ first picture is… When a bar owner discovers that one of his employees is having an affair with his wife, a complex web of deceit and double crosses ensues in a small Texas town. The Coen brothers’ first picture is an intricately plotted film noir filled with surprises at each turn. The cast, largely unkown at the time, includes Dan Hedaya as the cuckolded bar owner, Frances McDormand as the cheating wife, John Getz as the adultering bartender, and the fabulously creepy M. Emmett Walsh as the slimy, sweaty private detective who should not be trusted. The film is a marvel to experience; director of photography Barry Sonnenfeld has created stunning compositions filled with open spaces, and the sound–from the slightest footsteps or dripping water to a sudden shotgun blast–reverberates ominously, as if it is a character unto itself. Directed by Joel Coen and cowritten by Joel and his brother Ethan, BLOOD SIMPLE is an eerie testament to the limitless possibilities of low-budget filmmaking.
HELL NIGHT: Three girls pledging to join a sorority spend the night in a supposedly empty mansion. To their utter horror, they find that they are not alone.
KANSAS: In Kansas, Wade, a wholesome, law-abiding teenager, meets Doyle, a rough bad boy, and the two become friends. But unfortunately, the impressionable Wade begins to follow Doyle’s lead, and ultimately the two undertake a bank robbery. With the police catching up to them, the boys separate. Wade hides under a bridge — where he saves the life of the governor’s young daughter, an act caught on film by a newspaper photographer. Now, Wade is not only a criminal wanted by the police, but a mystery hero, sought after by the townspeople…
After leaving with my new collection of DVDs, we stopped at a local park in Coon Rapids to look them over quickly, and to my amazement, they were almost all in perfect condition and scratch free. What a deal to start my day!
From Coon Rapids we headed to Roseville, another close by suburb of Minneapolis where we were going to see a movie – our weekly movie. Although I had already seen “My Bloody Valentine” a couple of weeks ago, our local cinema didn’t have the 3D version of the film that I was hoping to see…so when I saw that the Roseville AMC theater had this version, I told Warren that I had to see it again. Warren didn’t care to see the movie, since it is a horror movie, so he took in another more to his liking…”Taken”.
Here’s a recap of our weekend picks.
MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D: Ten years ago, a tragedy changed the town of Harmony forever. Tom Hanniger, an inexperienced coal miner, caused an accident in the tunnels that trapped and killed five men and sent the only survivor, Harry Warden, into a permanent coma. But Harry Warden wanted revenge. Exactly one year later, on Valentine’s Day, he woke up…and brutally murdered twenty-two people with a pickaxe before being killed.
Ten years later, Tom Hanniger returns to Harmony on Valentine’s Day, still haunted by the deaths he caused. Struggling to make amends with his past, he grapples with unresolved feelings for his ex-girlfriend, Sarah, who is now married to his best friend, Axel, the town sheriff. But tonight, after years of peace, something from Harmony’s dark past has returned. Wearing a miner’s mask and armed with a pickaxe, an unstoppable killer is on the loose. And as his footsteps come ever closer, Tom, Sarah and Axel realize in terror that it just might be Harry Warden who’s come back to claim them…
STEVE SAYS: on “My Bloody Valentine” – a fun flick, especially in 3D. A throwback to the great slasher flicks of the 80’s that I truly love. If you area person that loves blood galore, you will certainly love this film. How many ways can you kill someone with a pick axe, let me count the ways…1) through the top of your bald head 2) through the back of your head and out your left eyeball 3) under the chin and up through your mouth 4) into the pit of your stomach 5) through your forehead 6) you get the point! ☺ I would rate this movie 4 ½ stars on my 5 star scale.
TAKEN: When two young American women are abducted in Paris and forced into white slavery by a mob of Albanians, it’s up to a retired secret agent (played by Liam Neeson) to save his estranged daughter (Maggie Grace) from a life of prostitution. While it’s hard to believe Paris is more dangerous than Los Angeles, director Pierre Morel and co-writer Luc Besson create enough elegant action sequences to distract us from the inanity while Neeson does all the heavy thespian lifting without breaking a sweat. The movie doesn’t really work, but it doesn’t bore us to death either.
WARREN SAYS: On “Taken” – Let’s face it, this is a movie where the CIA rules and everything goes pretty much as planned and expected. Having said that, I think the anger and determination of the father, in this movie, is accurate and was accepted by the viewers at my show. I liked the lead character (Liam Neeson)’s take no prisoner’s attitude when it came to his daughter’s life. He could be a violent man that knows sometimes that’s the only answer to violent evil people – such as were portrayed in this movie. Maybe there’s a message here – an eye for an eye. Warren rates this movie a 4 ½ stars out of a 5 star scale.
Well, there you have it – our weekend movies and two good ones to be exact, along with our thoughts and ratings. Tell me what you thought of either of these movies. Send me a note, leave me a comment, drop me a line.
Following our movies, we did some bumming around the mall and other stores. We hit Rainbow Road, a gay bookstore in downtown Minneapolis for a quick look through; although we didn’t purchase anything there this time, we have in the past. This is a nice little store for gay men and women alike and centrally located next to Loring park where our Gay Pride Festival is held each year. Unfortunately, last year the owner of the store sold some of his space, so the store got smaller, but it’s still a nice place to visit and shop. Stop by and took a look next time you are in Minneapolis.
After stopping by the bookstore, and following our supper at Buca Di Beppo’s, we headed towards home. It was a lot of riding to travel 2 ½ hours each way for a one day trip, but the time actually went by rather quickly as do most Saturday’s and weekends. I had a blast as did Warren and hopefully we will have a full weekend trip coming up in late February where we can stay overnight downtown and hit some of the nightspots on Friday and Saturday.
Well, that’s all from me today. Take it easy!
Steve
