The world of exploitation film ripped open and laid raw for you to experience. From 70's grindhouse to current underground, it is all here. So ripe you can practically smell it.
WE'RE GOING TO EAT YOU (1980) D. TSUI HARK MEDIA BLASTERS 1.85 This early entry from Hong Kong wizard boy Tsui Hark is full of energy, kung fu and some splashy gore. But it uses those things to mask that there is very little plot, no scares and tons of goofy comedy in the mix as well. It is as hyperactive as you would expect from this director and equally incoherent. But there is some fun to be had amidst the chaos. Norman Chu (once again as we saw him as the lead in LEWD LIZARD. No, I did not intentionally have a Norman Chu double feature!) plays special Agent 999 who is on a small island looking for a criminal from his past named ROLEX (Melvin Wong). The island is overrun by mask wearing cannibals under order of the new chief of police. They are killing and eating people and giving a little of the left over meat to the mentally handicapped and poor villagers.
While this is a set up for a no holds barred gore fest, the movie instead chooses to be a slapstick comedy with lots of martial arts. The cannibals all fight with a series of people in long, drawn out, intricate Kung Fu sequences that play more like demo reels for another film job. There is also a strange use of real handicapped and deformed people for bit parts, under most circumstances I would be fine with this, but here they are often used a comedic relief such as the giant transvestite that keeps attempting to rape the various men in the story. It just comes off as poor taste.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE CAMPUS CORPSE (1977) aka THE HAZING D. Douglass Curtis SHREIK SHOW/ CODE RED 1.85 The potboiler released by Code Red is an unusual beast indeed. Billed as a horror film in some circles and a comedy in others, it really is neither. It is a bizarre attempt at a campus based thriller with a twist ending.
The movie follows rising track start Craig Lewis (Jeff East, the spitting image of William Katt) as he starts at the best school on the continent. He foolishly agrees to pledge the big frat house, The Delts along with his new friend Barney (Charles Martin Smith, the "name" involved here since he was hot off of AMERICAN GRAFFITI). But during their hazing in which they are forced to run across country in their jock straps, Barney is badly hurt. By the time Craig returns, Barney is dead leaving the fellas to hide the body and come up with a plan to fake his death. Naturally none of it goes quite as planned.
This recent release from the insane (or
is it inane) folks at TROMA seeks to tame the balance between horror
and comedy once again, between camp and clowning around, between gore
and balloon animals. The results are a game changer, the kind of film
that redefines the genre. That looks at the rules of genre and
decides that it is time to totally do away with them and start over
fresh. You've never seen a movie like KLOWN KAMP MASSACE and more
than likely never will again.
The movie opens with a psycho Clown
named Edward at Clown college going on a killing spree. The is being
recorded. Jump forward a few years and the local clown camp is being
re-opened, complete with a group of misfit, knuckle heads who hope to
make it big as clowns. But psycho Edward is still running around the
camp doing people in.
The movie uses the expected iconography
of the slasher genre and deconstructs it using the comedy elements,
fusing it with clown jokes and costumes, causing it all to be a
juxtaposition of styles. By doing so this becomes a celebration of
not only the horror film of which it constantly looks back at the
audience with a wink and a grin, but of the idea of the scary clown
but giving us those clowns as victims. Obviously the whole point of
the movie is to say to the average horror fan that “Your
expectations are too high, so we aim to shoot lower and keep those
expectations in place. It is as if the filmmakers where looking at
the horror fandom itself and saying “ Look we see that you think
you are cooler than this material, but you really aren't not. We see
what has come before and we have digested that and made this from all
that has come before. All you fans with high and mighty expectations
can just go get fucked because this is just us having fun. But
completely restoring faith in the genre is the process.” The sting
in the tail of the movie makes the while thing end up be oh so “meta”
as it folds in on itself and changes once again.
In all honestly the movie ends up
becoming a little bit charming, with a couple of jokes that work
including the ICP kid, and a couple of fake commercials in the final
moments.
I actually Watched KLOWN KAMP
MASSACRE after coming home from seeing CABIN IN THE WOODS a movie I
really did not care for. The reaction to CABIN online has been
overwrought at best with fans and critics falling to their knees in
praise. This entire review of KKM is made of of actual hyperbole
from online posts and reviews for CABIN but when applied to another
movie not associated to a filmmaker with a set godlike status
hopefully people can see how insane this stuff sounds.
From the directors and F/X
teams behind the 2008 hit TOKYO GORE POLICE comes this outrageous
gore, monster, comedy that, frankly, I don't even know how to begin
to review. Is it a good movie? No, not really, but it IS a
constantly inventive one. Watching VAMPIRE GIRL VS. FRANKENSTEIN GIRL
you are sure to see things you have NEVER seen before, and a few
things you probably never will want to see again. Every frame of this
movie is jammed packed with color, movement, texture and lots and
lots of spraying gore. If ever there was a movie that was practically
begging you to pay attention it is this one. It is NEVER boring,
every second pops something new for you to lock your eyeballs onto.
But Jesus, at some point it almost becomes sensory overload.
The
movie opens with a crazy, crazy scene of our lead Vampire Girl (Yukie
Kawamura) facing off with a trio of doll faced school girl
monsters. She dispatches them them gorily, stripping their skin off
in long spirals and popping their skulls out, stacking them on the
beach before her boyfriend Jyugon Mizushima (Takumi
Saitô) begins to narrate the tale ahead of how they met. Jyugon
is the only real available boy in school and he is cornered by Keiko
(Eri Otoguro) the
pushy hot girl in class and soon he is her boyfriend. But the new
transfer student Monami sets her eyes on him and gives him a
chocolate candy with her own blood in it. Before he knows it he is craving blood
and wanting to be with Monami the Vampire Girl. What none of them
know is that the hot school nurse and school assistant principal are
doing experiments in the basement. The two girls are out to fight
each other over their new boy toy until he becomes a vampire too and
Mizushima ends up with her head blasted open on the pavement. Soon
she has become the experiment of the school staff and the nurse is
murdering the best students of the school to collect the parts to
recreate her as the best fighting monster possible.
This
write up doesn't even begin to do justice to the complete insanity of
this thing. From the opening scene of over the top of comedic
slaughter to the scene in the classroom where we meet the students
which is the most racist thing I have seen in a movie
since THE ETERNAL JEW. There is a subplot about a group of girls who
have remade themselves a faux Black girls by wearing make up and fake
afros and big cup lips and giant spears and every other
horrible stereotype and racist thing you can think of. I guess I can
reason it out as to be a commentary about people trying to go to
extremes to be people who they are not. But my god it is
terribly extreme and offensive. I guess that is the point.
There
is also another subplot about ritual cutters, a group of teenage
girls who cut themselves to be part of a group. They end up in a
competition of who can cut themselves the most and best, complete with
a trophy. The girls are all anemic and eat cabbage to keep up their
strength.
But the meat of the movie is the battle between
the girls. It becomes a big F/X battle with body parts switching
places, blood becoming solid becoming actual weapons. It really is
the epic battle the directors set out to achieve, even if it is kind
of stupid. With severed arms becoming spinning rotors to make people
fly and things like that. Frankly this movie would probably work a
lot better if you were really really high. I rarely say that since I
am not a stoner, but in this case, well it fits.
I was a big
fan of TOKYO GORE POLICE because with all the insane imagery, way
over the top gore, and bizarre psycho sexual set pieces, there was a
strong political and social subtext tying it all together. With
VAMPIRE GIRL VS FRANKENSTEIN GIRL it is almost like they set out to
make some really weird teen movie and are only lightly touching on
any kind of social context at all. The stuff that makes that other
movie hang together is mostly missing here,and that is a shame.
I'm
not a fan of the new Japanese insane cinema like MACHINE GIRL or
ROBOGEISHA with cute girls with machine guns pupping out of their
assholes and thousands of gallons of blood. That shit is amusing for
about a minute but then the twelve year old in me starts asking for a
context for it and gets severely disappointed. TOKYO GORE POLICE had
the whole package. This movie almost has it, then goes back to the
candy colored insanity. It is never boring for sure, but it is pretty
empty unfortunately.
THERE’S NOTHING OUT THERE (1992)
D. Rolfe Kanefsky TROMA
16mm Full Frame
I first encountered this over the top home spun horror comedy many years ago when it played the Drexel 24 hour horror movie marathon in Columbus Ohio in I believe 1992 or 1993. I absolutely HATED it. The audience there LOVED it. It went over like gangbusters, but I thought it was juvenile and forced and wanted nothing to do with it or the goofy humor it contained.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that my reaction said more about me than the film I had just seen. In the following years the horror genre would change drastically for the worse, with tons of lame self referential comedies becoming the norm in the wake of Wes Craven’s and Kevin Williamson’s SCREAM movies. The actual “horror” of the movies consistently taking a back seat to jokes and refernces about how the films intrude on real life and vise versa. A wink and a nod hipster look at the genre and why it is not really scary to begin with.
I on the other hand was a hard core horror movie buff who like it straight up and ice cold. Movies like that in those days pissed me off (though SCREAM got a slight pass with me until it spawned all the imitators and sequels.) I didn’t like horror comedies because I could see the writing on the wall and it didn’t look good. That horror was quickly becoming another dirty word and as long as there were laughs it was all okay.
But what I missed was that THERE’S SOMETHING OUT THERE was a relatively clever and quick witted little monster mash that more than lives up to its sleazy little promise. First time director Rolfe Kanefsky obviously loves the genre as much as I do because he packs in so much detail in the movie that it feels like it may have been his last project ever. It actually wasn’t as he went on to direct plenty of sleazy little movies from there on out. But it is his first movie that shows he had his heart in the right place.
Recently re-released from TROMA in a mega two disc package this movie may finally find the audience that has never quite copped to it until now. Cause this little flick has it all. A little green alien that shoots lasers out of its eyes, lots of slime, tons of naked girls and at least one really nasty decapitation that should go down into the books. Then there is the jokes, fast furious and actually pretty funny, this is one of those rare horror comedies that actually is smart enough to look at itself and the genre as a whole and know what is actually funny. But is never mean or spiteful enough to insult the audience.
The plot details a group of semi obnoxious teens who head out into the woods to one of their parent’s cottages for some sprint time rest and relaxation. Naturally the one single guy turns out the be the group horror fanatic and continues to tell them consistently that they are all doomed from the start because the whole situation reeks of a bad horror film. But he is right because earlier a meteor had fallen setting loose a little green alien that looks a lot like if Belial from BASKET CASE was from outer space. This little space turd begins bumping off the fellas and they soon figure out wants to mate with the ladies (including our leading lady who looks rather foxy in her stars and stripes bikini she sports for most of the running time).
That is pretty much it. Cat and mouse, lots of goofing around with a monster (that they figure out hates shaving cream in the mouth) and tons of girls taking off their clothes. Punctuated by tons of fun dialogue and a fashion sense that hadn’t yet let go of the 80’s.
I was obviously just a very angry young man when I first saw it because it is a very charming piece of work that has only gotten better with age.
The TROMA special edition includes several commentaries with the director, one older one from a few years back and a newer one specially recorded for this disc. It also has tons of audition footage, rehearsals, outtakes and other stuff where you get to see the cast and crew cutting up. Most fun is the director’s couple of short films including a cute little (not) fetish film called MOOD BOOBS about a gal who accidentally wishes her breasts could change sizes at will. So they end up inflating and deflating when she gets angry, excited or moody. It is clearly a little fetish piece for those who have the breast inflation Jones. But it is also a cute and funny little short comedy. There is a full disclosure behind the scenes peek at the making of this one as well.
Unfortunately this has the typical TROMA intro by Lloyd Kaffman that can be skipped over. It also has the typical TROMA crappy DVD authoring, where on the second disc you can’t navigate backwards through the extras. Once you click past them, you have to follow the entire sequence to come around full circle to get to it again. Lame.
Still there is a lot of material packed on for such a small movie that most have never heard of. So for the few fans this movie has this is a great release, and should get some new fans going as well.
THE EROTIC COUCH ***1/2 (2009) D. Andrew Shearer GONZORIFFIC 24P - HD
Andrew Shearer's latest cult comedy has already stirred controversy when the trailer got him kicked off Facebook for the "offensive" content. No one is really sure what about the trailer was so obscene since there was no nudity, but what can you do? I guess lesbians and suggested sex scare people. The movie is about a young lady whose couch begins to verbalize the fact that it is very sexually active and loves when people get busy on it and with it. She begins to eroticize the furniture, then other gals come by and get off on it as well, seduced by its charms. Eventually the couch lures more and more women into the apartment on its own, until an old, unresolved love finds her way into the cushions of desire. One funny moment has the couch in some unexplained way, planting signs out in public advertising for a "lesbian party" that all point to the house!
While still tongue in cheek, this one is a lot more sexy than Shearer's other works, making more attempts to be erotic, and achieves that goal more often than not. But what it also achieves is a very real sense of tenderness and sweetness in the final reel that cannot be shaken off. The climax is legitimately heartfelt, making the movie before it all the more mysterious and erotic because of it. Both the open and close of the movie are clear references to Russ Meyer with heavy bosomed women introducing the story (check the credits for clear references as the characters have "super" in their names) and is a very welcome touch. While all the actresses give their all, Priscilla Lee Press On has proves herself a really adept comedian and really needed to be given plenty more screen time. Her short role here is extremely funny.
Another thing that works in this movie (and most of Shearer's movies for that matter, but is really driving home here) is that women of all shapes and sizes can be sexual, and erotic. Full figured gals, thing gals, straight gals, lesbian gals, gals of all stripes and types can and ARE sexy but are almost never represented in movies. THE EROTIC COUCH is a huge step forward were women can be allowed to be as sexy as the REALLY ARE. Another win for the Gonzoriffic crew.
Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) - The Director's Cut/ Fan editD. John BoormanWarner Brothers1.85
For years I have heard nothing but how this movie is an unmitigated disaster. One of the worst sequels ever made and just a train wreck of a film from beginning to end. Misguided, miscast, incomprehensible and just plain unwatchable, unless taken as a comedy. Being that I consider The Exorcist one of the greatest films ever made, I just didn't want to sully that film in my mind and so I never bothered with this one. Now, that never stopped me from seeing The Exorcist: The Beginning, so I really have no arguable point to my madness. Also there have been many alternate cuts to Exorcist II over the years, with the final DVD that Warner's released being the longest one. this apparently was the same as the version that Warner's released to theaters in winter of 1977 that was universally panned by audiences and destroyed by critics. So much so that director John Boorman agreed to the film being pulled from release and personally recut the movie from 117 minutes to a much tighter 110 minutes and re-arranged much of the storyline, using some stills and footage from the original film to make it flow better.
This fan edit that I watched tonight originated from the tracker siteDemonoid and was put together from a cat named PhineasBgwho has lovingly reconstructed that 110 minute "director's recut" from the available DVD and an ancient VHS tape. His goal to replicate what many consider to be John Boorman's true directorial cut of the film. I have no frame of reference as to whether or not he succeeded in doing so, except to say that I thought the movie was far better than people have led me to believe over the years. This was in no way the flaming pile of shit people have accused the film of being.
After an awkward opening explaining the incidents of the first film through still frames and voice overs we are introduced to Father Lamont, played by Richard Burton. He is in Africa on missionary work but confronted with an exorcism of a local woman that goes horribly wrong. seems the woman was a local healer but the demon won't let her go and she dies in a wall of flames. Back home the Church sends Lamont to investigate the death of Father Merrin from the first film. He discovers Reagan McNeil (the now quite gorgeous teenage Linda Blair) in some sort of experimental hypno-therapy with a new age Doctor played by Louise Fletcher. The three of them begin to use a new strobe light driven device to go into deep hypnosis trances to get at Reagan's memories of the demon possessions only to realize the demon's themselves are very much still alive in her.
So far so good. A little Sci-Fi heavy, very New Age, but a very interesting take on the material. Not scary, but headed into a different direction and in no way rehashing what we have already seen from the first film. Then the film takes a hard left turn that has left many audiences really cold. It delves hard into the African native cultural beliefs dealing with things like plagues of locusts destroying the land, being driven by demons and taking on spirit animals to confront such demons. The film mixes these native approaches to spirituality with the new age hypnotism therapies, and a constant questioning of faith in Christianity. Christianity starts coming up very short by the end of the film. But the elements that seems to put people off, at least among my friends, is the dealing of spirits with representational animals and insects. The locusts, which throughout the bible have stood for the destruction of the land, are prominent in this film representing damnation. they represent the spread of the demons and the force of evil. The image here being, literally, a large locust flying around leading hordes to the next bit of prey. We get to see James Earl Jones as a tribal Priest dressed in the skins of a giant Locust whose spirit animal is a giant Leopard who is able to control the locusts. when it is revealed he is not a God at all but a scientist that has studied locusts a lot of the imagery that has come before falls into place. He explains how the locust spread destruction when they are agitated and angry, especially in large packs. He then explains how they have bred a new locust that will have the power to calm the other locusts. Something we see a local native boy who was a faith healer trying to do, when he falls possessed earlier in the film.
The whole while Pazzuzzu the demon inside of Reagan is trying to become unleashed but is battling the positive side of Reagan as well which will become the Black locust, the healer. Which we see in action when she, without trying, heals an autistic child just by talking to her at the psychiatric hospital earlier. The final battle will be between the Evil doppelganger Reagan, possessed by Pazzuzzu and the healer Reagan, the Black Locust. With poor Lamont having to fight the final battle to tear the heart from the demon to stop it once and for all.
What we end up with here is really a film that is quite unlike anything else. A child progeny of the drugged out, coked up, weed smoking late seventies, when people were wearing crystals, checking out new religions and questioning anything and everything to do with faith and the universe. While the first Exorcist movie was in essence a very Catholic film that re-enforced Christian and Catholic dogma and morality at the end of the day (I still love it anyway, and most people totally miss that it is a very moral, and pro church film) Exorcist II is looking in a completely different direction. Here the director (and ghostwriter with partner Rosco Pallenberg) are exploring the conceits that maybe organized religion isn't the answer when faced with raw evil. The film rather smartly pits Catholicism against science, against new agism, and most importantly what many would consider outright Paganism with the African magic and tribalism. By the end of the film it is the African Tribalism that has the answers, leaving all the other systems of worship and faith trialing behind. If the film is watched carefully it is as much a conical of Father Lamont's spiral out of his faith as it is a weirdo horror/fantasy about demons and Locust Spirit Guides.
Still the movie is far, far from perfect. It's over ambition renders several scenes on the pretentious side, and even cut down to 110 it is a bit too long. Richard Burton was reportedly drinking quite heavily during production and his still performance and profuse sweating shows this to be true. There are a couple of scenes that are clearly supposed to be directed in a dreamlike manner but just come off as goofy instead.
But most of the movie is a visual feast, with breathtaking cinematography, great locations, both on site and in studio. an incredible score by EnnioMoricone, solid acting form most of the cast, and Linda Blair right as she is hitting her stride into adult hood. There is a lot to appreciate in this film. Is it an appropriate movie to be a sequel to the classic The Exoricst? Probably not. Is it a good film, ripe for rediscovery, full of mental stimulation, incredible imagery, and lots of interesting and challenging ideas? Yes sir, that is exactly what it is. And I will take that.
This ridiculous starring vehicle for porn starlet Marilyn Chambers starts off promisingly enough. With ENTER THE DRAGON inspired opening credits that feature Chambers performing really shitty karate moves complete with the strobing effect from that classic. But since that clearly isn’t enough to hook an audience in they have Chambers go full frontal nude as well. Then add a weird effect that has her fade to sketches of herself periodically that have nothing to do with anything. I noticed right away that she has some odd looking tits. I dunno if she had some really early 70’s implants or just oddball boobs but they sit really far apart and seem rather hard. Like they don’t want to move from the perch on either side of her boney chest. Otherwise she’s an attractive lady. I’ve seen her in recent years at conventions and she still looks really good actually. Her new boob job is much nicer in fact.
The plot has her working for a secret agent cabal that does mop up missions for the US government that are so dangerous even they don’t want to know about them. Her group is called THE PROTECTORS and she is a perfect weapon, or so we are told. Mean while Mary Woronov and her goofy dude sidekick Stephen Johnson are assigned by another secret government agency to find out who is stealing high tech microchips and why. Woronov is a nymphomaniac who will bed down anyone and anything while Johnson is a goofy genius of the “aw shucks” variety. We get to see Chambers in action when she catches an intruder played by fellow porn star Randy West and proceeds to bang him. up until now the movie has been a little silly but relatively played straight. But suddenly it becomes a slapstick comedy with West badly dubbed with a Chinese accent AND subtitled in English with subs that don’t match what he is saying at all. It is a weird joke that really isn’t funny as much as it is disconcerting an disorienting. Plus my friends and I couldn’t figure out who he was and kept commenting on how he looked like Marjo Gortner.
Eventually our leads all separately end up on an island where a reclusive genius is working on some top secret scientific mumbo jumbo, More importantly he is the spitting image of a really strange dude who comes into my work, except this guy in the movie wears silk pants and a cape. though I could see the guy from work doing that too if people would let him. Johnson and Woronov go to a disco with the dudes stacked wife, but this disco has mud wrestling and naked dancing girls. Upstairs at the disco some sort of shenanigans are going on that we never actually see but hear about second hand that deal with blackmailing of employees to steal the microchips so dude with the cape can use them in his secret schemes to take over the world. Chambers tries to get into the club and has to get all hot with a midget who looks like Gary Busey and rides her like a pony (probably the movie’s highlight). She puts a Vulcan death grip on him and gets her info, which really isn’t anything at all. Eventually all the good guys end up working together and figure out the nutty cape man is creating androids (who love to have sex) to take over the world, and are controlled by sound. turns out his sexy wife is an android and she has fallen in love with Woronov after their heated round of mud wrestling at the disco. Lots of guys in thongs and speedos prance around as androids making my friend Mike really nervous and there is a lame climax with cheap ass melting robots and bad slapstick comedy.
Intentionally bad movies are a particularly painful breed. Bad because you have no money, or no talent, or no patience for the production are all fine and good. Bad just because things didn’t work out in your favor and the odds were against you is fine too. But bad because you set out to make a movie that is intentionally stupid to try to get laughs is often just insulting and irritating. ANGEL OF HEAT is one of those movies. Occasionally it is amusing, mostly when Mary Woronov is on screen since she is always fun to watch and gives her all. But this is such a threadbare and embarrassing production that to have it all be so purposely inane makes it feel like being in a room with a friend who wants to get on your nerves.
Weirdly enough the opening credits actually read ANGEL OF HEAT: THE PROTECTORS BOOK #1 so it looks like they were wanting to launch some sort of low budget comedy/ espionage series. Clearly that didn’t happen. If they had played it more straight and went for a more action/exploitation feel ala Andy Sidaris they could have been onto something. But it missed the boat.
MY NAME IS BRUCE (2007) D. BRUCE CAMPBELL IMAGE/DARK HORSE 1.85
Once upon a time I could understand all the adulation that people heaped upon Bruce Campbell. Back in the day that seemed like a lifetime ago when he was just a working sclubb trying to make it happen while making B movies. Doing decent work in sometimes decent little movies and occasionally making those movies better. But then somewhere along the line the "cult of Bruce" developed. That vicious cycle where people begin to worship an actor just for being who they are and in turn the actor stops doing the interesting work and instead develops themselves as a commodity. Bruce Campbell stopped being a B-movie actor and started focusing on being the character of Bruce Campbell. What's funny is that he went from being a basically fun loving, gregarious guy that when you met him was decent and fun to interact with, to a caricature of himself who played up the "Hollywood actor" thing and started treating people lousy as part of his schtick. I met him once when he was in my home town to do a bit of outdoor theater and his was the sweetest nicest guy to me. He came back a year later to premier his shitfest directorial debut film THE MAN WITH THE SCREAMING BRAIN and was a dick and pretty much insulted the audience and the previous year's production. After that we started getting commercials with Bruce playing this Bruce character, and him writing a book from this point of view. It was only a matter of time before a movie would come along.
The Movie is MY NAME IS BRUCE and it is frankly a mess. In fact I wouldn't even had watched if a friend hadn't challenged me to. My Friend Bryan likes to do what he calls the "ANCHORMAN Challenge" where he makes us watch terrible comedies under the challenge that we will beak and actually laugh at some point, based obviously on the terrible movie ANCHORMAN. Well I made it through MY NAME IS BRUCE without laughing.
The story concerns a small redneck town in which a teenager while trying to impress some girl (and who happens to be the world's biggest Bruce Campbell fan) lets loose a Chinese demon from the local mines. Meanwhile Bruce Campbell, played by Bruce Campbell, is having a bad time with his career. He's a drunk, an obnoxious loser, his ex wife is banging his agent who will only get him the lousiest movies possible. He's a self absorbed idiot loser that we are supposed to think is such a schlub that he is lovable. But he is just annoying really. The kid ends up kidnapping him to fight the Chinese demon, but Bruce Thinks it is all part of some big play for a movie and doesn't realize it is real. Supposedly hilarity ensues. But you'll be groaning at the used and tired jokes you've seen before. Years ago, in movies from Peter Sellers and even he thought the sucked when he was doing them. There's an avalanche of EVIL DEAD and Sam Raimi references as if to remind you that Bruce was once in decent movies and to pacify the film geeks who would be the target audience. Oddly enough most of the jokes make fun of them too. The comedy consists of things like Ted Raimi in full Chinese make up talking with a bad accent, or Bruce with and angel and a devil both played by him arguing on his shoulders. Sad shit indeed.
The movie tries to keep it lighthearted, but the overwhelming sense of smugness keeps it from ever being very funny at all. I'm sure this whole thing is an act on Bruce Campbell's part but it is a slightly repellent one that I personally find a huge turnoff. The whole project stinks of what he thinks an audience wants from a Bruce Campbell movie, not what a good movie should be.
The only saving grace for me was the lead actress, who only shows up at the halfway point I might ad, Grace Thorsen. It's hard to say if she is a great actress or anything because the material is so weak. But my god is she hot! She has the best set of boobs I have seen in a movie in a long, long time. Though she never unleashes them, which for a project this lame, I can't say I blame her. But when she was onscreen I wasn't bored, stiff maybe, but not bored.
