Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Portis is one of our chat-room regulars, making the leap from chatting to reviewing, and his first effort is a glance at a movie I’m intensely curious about. I didn’t get a chance to go to a recent screening at the Egyptian here in LA, which bummed me out, but at least I get a chance to read this review and see what I may have missed:
Hey Guys....long listener, first time caller from Chicago. Well i watched the H.P Lovecraft film "DAGON" saturday night and as far as horror films go i was in complete SQUIRM MODE. It made me ask myself "why is it that some film gets the theatrical treatment and others get direct to video/DVD?" Well perhaps i should tell you a lil background before i tear into a tangent.
Welcome to the world of H.P. Lovecraft it is very much a disturbed lil place and in the film "DAGON" it is right off the cost of Spain. When two unlucky couples are sailing around in their lil yacht they just sorta happen to crash into a reef causeing one of the two women on the boat to be trapped on a lower deack. Well it is up to Paul (played by Ezra Godden) and his girlfriend Barbera (Raquel Merono) to go to shore to get help. Paul and barbra arrive in the fucking VILAGE OF THE DAMNED (to bad this title was taken...would have fit so well) as far as i am concerned and are instintly split up for Paul to go to the ship while Barbra stays asore and ends up in a bad way. Paul comes back to shore after finding his friends are no longer on the boat, and ends up in a chase scene that lasts most of the rest of the movie. Ya see Paul is running from these half human/ half fish children of the Village God....(drum roll)...DAGON. Now Dagon is all about just killing the men and impregnateing the women with his evil lil seamen. (sorry had to say it) As you can probably guess Paul is in very deep shit and the women are pretty much fucked.
Now, seeing as how i do actually want people to see this film cause i do think it is great fun i am not gonna spoil too much. the tone of the film was so oppressive in terms of it was so dark you felt like squirming in a corner. The mood that Director Stuart Gordon set places you back in those films of the 70's that you just felt like shit wasn't right from the moment the sky gets dark. I felt that this movie at times was split into a half horror/ half action because in a very "DIE HARD" mode Paul is constintly running for his life, and when the shit isn't deep enoough even MORE SHIT piles up on out lil bookwormish hero. If he isn't hitting Mutants in the head with his cell phone then, he is trying to escape the grasp of a very hot and sexy lil doe eyed gil named Uxia (Macarena Gomez) who just wants some lovein. this film is basicly "THE LITTLE MERMAID MEETS NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD" it is sheer fun from beginning to end. the only problem i had was understanding the words of Ezequiel (played by the late Francisco Rabal) his characterization was perfect it would have just been better to have had captions because I only understood every third word he spoke. Also the Religious aspect slowed the pace when it would come up at times it felt like it was another entity within the film but, of course if you are to carry out the vision of another man you must focus on his points. In all honesty this film would have lost something in lesser hands but with the rich character we fell into with Paul, being as bookwormish and desperate as we would have been in the same situation, and the rich flavor or rather the gaul to churn our stomaches and minds that Stuart Gordon constintly gave this movie would have not been worth the passion. I can only say this I had more fun with this movie then i do with most horror films because most horror films have lost their passion. But, just to let ya know if your into happy endings always or not into seeing probably one of the nastiest scenes i have seen since i watched a guy get "CURBED" in American History x then do not watch this film, otherwise it is a BLAST!
While at this same event i happened to see two interesting Direct to video trailers. the first of which was COMIC BOOK VILLAINS a film about two comic book dealers who square off in a rampage of deceit and murder to aquire the comic book collection of a man who paased away. The collection is 50 years worth of comics and they both try to do anything and everything to get it from the mans 90 year old mother.
The second trailer i saw was for a film called LIBERTY STANDS STILL which looks to be about a man who makes a woman cuff herself to a hotdog stand and will shoot her from a sniper nest in a nearby building until his demands are met or her cell phone goes dead. This film looked very tight from the trailer it stars Wesley Snipes and Linda Fiorentino.
Well I'm spent....Your moneys on the dresser baby, i'm done with you.
Portis
Is LIBERTY STANDS STILL a low-budget ripoff of PHONE BOOTH, the Colin Farrell vehicle that Fox is still sitting on for some reason? And is there a chance it might actually be released first? Hmmmm...
"Moriarty" out.
