Tag Archives: comedy

A Homosexual Hooks Up with a Porn Star and Treats Her EVILLY Sleazy. “The Last Foxtrot in Burbank” reviewed! (Full Moon Features / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“The Last Foxtrot in Burbank” Finally Recognized by Charles Band and Full Moon Features!

In the fictious setting of Burbank, France, a distraught and wandering Paul grieves over the loss of his gay, drag queen lover.  Wallowing in despair as well as barely entertaining his lover’s mother, Paul is on a half-hearted hunt for a new apartment and runs into Jeannine when the two meet looking at the same rental.  A mostly sexualized relationship ensues at the apartment with Paul treating the beautiful French woman and aspiring adult star like a piece of meat in a homosexual way, stemmed by his inadequacies in bed.  Jeanne, becoming fed up with Paul’s obsessive and polarizing behavior during their romantic tryst, lashes out in various ways, one as a gun-toting adult starlet that makes shooting scenes with her all that more dangerous to one’s health.  Paul’s health too becomes a target as Jeanne’s ultimate distaste for his floundering and obsessive ways, especially in condemning her pornographic lifestyle.

“The Last Foxtrot in Burback” is a film Charles Band (“Puppet Master”) desperately tried to erase and forget along with then newcomer editor, “Halloween’s” John Carpenter, as both filmmakers disassociated and disavowed its existed because of a couple reasons:  1) the romantic satirical spoof was not a horror/sci-fiction film both of them wanted to make at the time and 2) audiences were not appreciating it’s parodical and fleshy colored luster.  The film it removes inspirational humorous bones from is Marlon Brando’s “The Last Tango in Paris,” helmed by Bernardo Bertolucci who is dug a path of steamy sexual dramas, including “Stealing Beauty” and “The Dreamers.”  “The Last Foxtrot in Burbank” aimed to capitalize on its 1972 pushing-the-boundaries of sexualization success with writers Bill Haggard and Sam Vaughn behind the screenplay pages.  Band produced the film with filming held in Los Angeles and Marc Perilli serving as executive producer under the Federal Film Incorporation.

In his best Marlon Brando impersonation, Michael Pataki (“Halloween 4:  The Return of Michael Myers,” “The Baby”) opens his pastiche performance with hyperbole and flamboyance to emulate his version Paul to Brando’s version of Paul while still dishing the Brando-isms and deliveries.  Pataki also opens his trench coat to open-faced frontal nudity.  Yet, the one who is mostly nude is Sherry Denton in the role of Frenchwoman Jeanne.  Her role does harness the same essence of “The Last Tango in Pari’s” Maria Schneider, making Denton’s Jenne harder to define as she absorbs Paul’s verbal and emotional abuse, as she contemplates their arranged sexual rendezvous against her emotional withstand all, and how she manages a life in the adult industry as a sex object that runs parallel with being too a sex object outside the profession.  Pataki and Denton’s scenes together resemble that of a mother humoring a spoiled child.  Denton’s rather levelheaded compared to a full-blown exaggeration of Marton Brando in Michael Pataki with acute yelling spats and irrational sex requests that bleed into pleading and disappointment on a childish person of imprudence.  The gut punch of obsession, desire, and more refined melodrama is lost within Band’s spoof in a combination of bad writing and missed opportunities to sell the performances.  While this version of “The Last Foxtrot in Burbank” is not the pornographic scene splice in version, the actors still must be comfortable with each other in the story’s requirement of genitalia proximity and exposure as some scenes can be often graphic in its simulation of sex as well as be humiliating.  The cast rounds out with Merlouch Drabin, Sally Marr (“Young Lust”), Simmy Bow, and I. William Quinn (“Alligator”).

Supposedly, “The Last Foxtrot in Burbank” is a shot-for-shot spoof but Charles Band’s picture has jagged edges around a nonconformist narrative whereas “The Last Tango in Paris” abides by more linear storytelling.  The gags are not particular funny unless you’ve seen the Brando film and have a puerile sense of humor, but even then, the gags are terribly heavy fisted in a strive to really make light of sexual casualness and obsession in a conduit of Brando’s mumble and gravelly discord with the occasional outburst of hyperbolic flair.  For those who haven’t seen the Brando film, “The Last Foxtrot in Burbank” will be totally lost without a reference, especially the France set story shows it’s budget with the English-laden business and directional signs that play into the running gag of the fictious city that combines Burbank, California and Paris, France.   One could see why Charles Band and John Carpenter wanted to disassociate and distance themselves from this film but for both filmmakers, it’s a significant first film that kind of redirected their career paths when they knew comedy, such as this one, wasn’t their forte.  Charles Band even went as far as destroying all copies of the film and changing his name to a pseudonym, Carlo Bokino, to erase all involvement but he unsuccessful and a print was discovered unphased by his attempts to eradicate all known evidence.  Today, Band accepts his first film and even catalogue’s it with a No. 0 on the spine that makes it official Charlie canon. 

The first official and unofficial film of Charles Band’s career comes to Blu-ray home video from Band’s Full Moon Features in an unlikely genre release from the horror and science fiction regular.  The AVC encoded, 1080p high-definition, BD25 comes uncut and uncensored, transferred from an original negative donated from the UCLA archives under an anonymous donor.  Not much is stated here about what kind of a transfer we’re treated but the 2K scan appears adequate with a freshened image with moderate color saturation and details.  There are times the image appearance has a slightly faded realism, similar to that of William Friedkin’s “The French Connection” where details can be soft at times and ungraded.  Most scenes are better than not with palpable textures around more closeups and medium shots.  Skin tones are little more on the orange side, likely due to the chemical dye in the exposure that has an orange base which results in a natural, fringed tint.  The Blu-ray is presented in a widescreen aspect ratio 1.78:1.  Audio comes with an English LPCM 5.1 and a Stereo 2.0.  Both audio formats provide a crisp track of a dialogue, ambience, and what soundtrack is present, but the surround sound does little to enhance the film with its lack of off-camera or multi-directional scenes with mostly centered performances by the actors and not a ton of action.  The stereo 2.0 suffices.  No hissing or crackling present and the interference is kept to a suitable minimum to digest all its wacky dialogue.  The physical presence of Full Moon’s Blu-ray runs the same course as the others with a standard Amaray Blu-ray case and single-sided sleeve art with no other tangible attributes.  The nearly full-bodied orange colored sleeve mirrors “The Last Tango in Paris’” art to an extent and Full Moon uses stills with nudity on the back cover as an added perk.  The 56 minute Blu-ray, shorter because the cut of the hardcore inserts, is rated R and unlocked for multi-region playback. 

Last Rites: “The Last Foxtrot in Burbank” is a hard sell with its flat lampooning of “The Last Tango in Paris.” A handful of sleaze to be had but there’s nothing more cringy than watching histrionics for an extremely niche market.

“The Last Foxtrot in Burbank” Finally Recognized by Charles Band and Full Moon Features!

Two Cops. Two Girls. One EVIL Crime Boss! “Rosa” reviewed! (88 Films / Limited Edition Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Grab the Limited Edition Blu-ray of “Rosa” from 88 Films!

Little Monster and Lui Gung didn’t get along to begin with when Little Monster’s accident put Kung’s sister in the hospital for minor injuries but when the two rookie cops get on the bad side of their direct supervisor, Inspector Tin, they have no choice but to work together under his pleasure to see them suffer.  The two cops are assigned to the case of Li Wei-Feng, a smalltime crook who tries to black male mob boss Wong with incriminating photographs of a deal gone deadly.  They stay on top of and befriend Wei-Feng’s ex-girlfriend Rosa in hopes he’ll show up but the cops find themselves going on more double dates between Kung wooing the model Rosa and Little Monster courting Kung’s sister than actually doing any detective leg work.  Before they know it, they’re assisting Rosa out of her gambling debts with medium level bosses and on hot coals with Boss Wong’s formidable henchmen who will stop at nothing and will kill anyone in their way from obtaining the smoking gun film roll. 

“Rosa” is the 1986, Tung Cho “Joe” Cheung directed buddy cop comedy-action film from Hong Kong,  Cheung has delivered a string of action comedies prior, such as with the a torn Kung Fu novice must jealous mend the rift between his two masters before a war ensues in “The Incredible Kung-Fu Master” in 1978 and the story of a veteran police officer who must work both sides of the law to manage his wife’s gambling addiction is paired with a rookie cop to take down transgresses in “Shadow Ninja,” release in 1980.  “Rosa” is another notch of comedic effort in Cheung’s belt but on a bigger scale with well-known actors, a large cast, incredible stunts, and fast martial arts choreography in a script penned by the “Chungking Express” director Wong Kar-Wai and “Hard Boiled” and “Mr. Vampire” writer Barry Wong.  Wong and Anthony Chow (“The Cat”) produce the film under the Golden Harvest Company and Bo Ho Film Company flags.

“Rosa” uses an ensemble cast more for comedic purposes rather than to instill dramatic action, beginning chief principal Biao Yuen, who we’ve recently reviewed in another new phenomenal physical 88 Films Blu-ray release in “Saga of the Phoenix” and has had roles in “Game of Death,” “Encounter of a Spooky Kind,” and “Picture of a Nymph,” as the endearingly named Little Monster, a go-lucky rookie cop with skilled martial arts moves.  Charming and confidence, Yuen plays the most sensible of protagonists without absorbing a lot of humiliation unlike his costar Lowell Lo who finds himself in a more subordinate role of Lui Gung underneath Little Monster’s suavity by having more overreactions, slapstick, and chasing with his tongue out a lost cause – that being Rosa.  “Inferno Thunderbolt’s” Hsiao-Fen Lu plays that titular role, a gambler addict and model with loan shark debt with ties to a small-time crook that incidentally involve her in a deadlier high-stakes blackmail with a power crime boss, but her importance is depreciated by Yuen and Lo’s buddying comedy and not the driving focus of the plot.  In all, the progression is a group effort rather than encamping around a centralized person.  With that being said, Kara Ying Hung Wai (“The Ghost Story”) often feels like an afterthought, a proverbial fourth wheel, as Gung’s sister Lui Lui whos’ gifted lines and a presence here and there but is mainly only Little Monster’s love interest in corporeal presence only.  Rounding out the good guys is the hapless Inspector Tin (Paul Chun, “To Hell With the Devil”), an arrogant supervisor who doesn’t want to get his hands dirty with police work and recruits Little Monster and Kung as punching bags for wrong him in their individualized opening, mishap run-ins with the inspector, another comedy outlet absorbing Rosa’s unintended entrenched Mob connection.  The Mob and other baddies fill out the cast with Billy Sau Yat Ching, James Tien, Charlie Cho, Fat Chung, Chen Chuan, and Dick Wei. 

As far as “Rosa’s” action is concerned, it is topnotch quality between the wide-variety of stunts, the pinpoint choreography, and the excellently executed martial art fights that disproportionately leaves the narrative as a quintessential chop-socky police story.  I say disproportionately because the action is overly consumed by the comedy that, in itself, has struggles.  The humor physicality lands with precision with big hits taken in accidental error or are made within the context of choreographed fight scenes mostly stemmed by Lowell Lo and Paul Chun as they bumble their way through situations, but the dialogued jokes and other vocal gags are terribly corny that unfortunately dilute the overall mirth-murky pool that it becomes too often cringeworthy to swim in.  The light-hearted and sexualized humor is blended with an endless wooing and an outdo rivalry between the forced partnership that evolves into a fond friendship between Little Monster and Lui Gung, who is often referred to as Big Brother.  Lowell Lo embodies a larger slapstick piece of the pie with his distinguishable friendly face and doughy-eyed demeanor, contrasted against the athletic slender of Biao Yuen who outshines him on the conventional society determined good looks scale with an unassuming martial arts skillset to match.  All the serious and grim nature comes out of the Hong Kong’s criminal element with deadly assassins that use piano wire and large caliber handgun to lacerate jugulars and explode cars full of betrayed crooks.  The third act finale finally puts the pieces together and creates a harmonious brawl that blends action and comedy evenly, even integrating Lui Lui into the fold with an out of the blue ability to hold her own and fight just as fast and furious as Little Monster.  

Another Golden Harvest distributed production garners attention once again on 88 Films, in association with Fortune Star Films, with a definitive Blu-ray set from the UK boutique label making their presence known here in the North American market.  The AVC encoded, 1080p high-definition transfer, onto a BD50 has remarkable presentational quality with a pristine print transferred onto a 2K scan from its original 35mm negative.  The immersive quality shows no sign of destabilizing the matrix, leaving audiences with the immense scope of a cleaner, natural image full of depth and range of saturated and diffused color.  Skin tones appear organic and nitty-gritty with the stubble, sweat, beauty marks, and the subtle contrasts of tones.   88 Films’ flexes their restoration efforts that extends the color palate to suitable measure and each scene, through its superb editing by chop-socky veteran Peter Cheung, segues into the next without missing a color resolution beat.  The film is also presented in original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio.  There are two ADR mono tracks, Cantonese and English.  Cantonese is preferred with the better mouth-to-sound synchronization, but both deliver a really good decoded mono mix despite the singular direction of all the audio but with post-production sound, that can be manipulated to exact timing with the exact sound to create a better disbursed audio design.  There some crackling and hissing in the dialogue but very low-level interference that doesn’t hinder the prominence and really affect the clarity.  The newly translated UK English subtitles are available from Ken Zhang and synch fine with a steady pace and come without typos.  Encoded special features have a new audio commentary by Hong Kong Cinema experts Frank Djeng and F.J. DeSanto, a second new commentary from another Hong Kong Cinema expert David west, an interview with director Tung Cho “Joe” Cheung and assistant director Benz Kong, alternate English opening and closing credit titles, an image gallery, and the original trailer.  The limited-edition set comes with a rigid slipbox sheathed by an O-Ring slipcover with new artwork by Sean Longmore that plays into Rosa’s bosomy running ga. Inside the slipbox is a 40-page color booklet with stills and a pair of essays from Fraser Elliott and Paul Bramhell, a collectible postcard, and the clear Amaray case with the same primary Langmore art on the sleeve that can be reversed for the original Hong Kong poster art.  The booklet and slipbox have more original art as well that speaks the action and slapstick.  The not rated, region A and B encoded release has a runtime of 97 minutes.

Last Rites: Fun, exciting, and moderately droll, “Rosa” might hit-and-miss on the comedy, but what definitely hits is the martial arts action defined in a harmony of perfect scrappy chorography.

Grab the Limited Edition Blu-ray of “Rosa” from 88 Films!

There’s Growth in the Darkest of EVIL Pacts. “Vulcanizadora” reviewed! (Oscilloscope Laboratories / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Catch “Vulcanizadora” on Blu-ray from Oscilloscope Laboratories!

Friends Derek and Marty trek through the Michigan forest to get away from their life’s problems, stopping occasionally to dig up previously stowed away porn magazines, camp around a fire and in tents out in the open air, enjoy swimming in the fresh waters of nearby lake, and videotape themselves setting off small fireworks.  As Derek enjoys life’s little moments out in the wild with his best friend, Marty’s intentions are more focused on their unspoken pact, the whole reason for their journey through isolated wilderness.  The closer they walked toward to their journey’s terminus, Marty’s determination to finish what they started becomes more rabid whereas Derek has second thoughts with fear projecting out of his nervous habits.  When one of them doesn’t return home, tremendous guilt submerses the other into self-liability as he tries to make right and to make amends for what happened between the two friends alone in the wilderness.

Vulcanizadora.  A Spanish dictionary word for tire shop or also the heat-treating process of crude rubber to improve durability.  It’s also the title of Michigan native Joel Potrykus’s written-and-directed, 2024 dark comedy drama that relates, in a way, to both English definitions of the word.  Potrykus began his directing career in comedy back in 2012 with “Ape,” a black comedy about a struggling comedian-turned-pyromaniac, and from there the residing Grand Rapids filmmaker has hovered in the bleak and comedic mingle continuing with the ill-fitted paranoia of “Buzzard,” fortune obsessed mysteries of “The Alchemist Cookbook,” and “Relaxer” that takes audiences, or at least those who lived through the experience, back to the Y2K apocalypse scare for one man’s quest to conquer the Pac-Man videogame.  “Vulcanizadora” is a produced by Hannah Dweck and Theodore Schaefer of Dweck Productions, Matt Grady of Factory 25, and Ashley and Joel Potrykus under Sob Noise Productions. 

Joel Potrykus co-stars in his own feature story alongside Potrykus film regular Joshua Burge in their first collaboration since 2018’s “Relaxer,” marking their fourth project together.  Potrykus plays the incessantly hyperactive Derek, a babbling, balding, and large goatee rocking fun seeker eager to show Marty a good time on their walk through the woods despite the grim preconceived end game.  Marty’s a direct opposite of Derek with solemn character and intensive tinkerer putting up with Derek’s nervous ways but also impatiently awaiting their determined fate.  Potrykus constructs a fascinating and fantastic preluding invisible wall with the intention of blocking both Derek and Marty’s past and chiseling out piece-by-piece under casually cryptic conversation, we can begin to learn what motivates their pact with hints of property destructive transgressions and life disaffirming unhappiness.  There’s never clearcut cause upfront or even into the second act and that naturally leaves the last act to unravel the unfortunate circumstances around what makes Joel and Marty tick, and their friendship acutely grows stronger with compassion and genuine regard despite the other’s permanent absence.  The story primarily and innately focuses on the buddy duo, that appears under the guise of the arbitrary mundane with one-sided indulgence in Derek’s childlike Incessancy and quiet Marty’s tongue-biting abiding of his friend’s then unknown stall tactics, but the narrative opens up and expands upon “Vulcanizadora’s” world as one of them reinstates themselves back into their personal misery, a smalltown society of unscrupulous lawyers, browbeating and demented fathers, challenging ex-wives, and intimidating authoritative figures casted with Bill Vincent, Sherryl Despress, Scott Ayotte, Dennis Grants, G. Foster II, Jaz Edwards, Melissa Blanchard, and introducing Solo Potrykus. 

A slow burn of melancholy, “Vulcanizadora” is masked depression at its worst with voiceless victims that work out an ill-fated end on their own.  “Vulcanizadora” is also about friendship despite the seemingly lopsided larking and crestfallen relationship between Derek and Marty, who often feel more like diamagnetism than having a connection while on their passage through the woods.  Potrykus’s story, and subsequent exhibition of the tale, depicts an all but true tragedy of feeling the impact of loss, especially in the context of underappreciated and compassionate feelings for someone else.  While the other friend is around, complacency is the devil’s active ingredient in dividing our human connection as the thought is both being alive together or dead together would be constant, and even more so when that connection is with a person who might be the best person in the world to them but just can’t see underneath the film of one’s own miscontent.  When not around, being separated makes the heart grow founder and the reality of loss sets in.  Potrykus highlights those forlorn facets in the third act surrounded by nothing of life’s hardships and unusual bombardments, which to be fair was brought upon by past transgressions of invincibility, which involve a process similar to vulcanizing, hence the title, and the knowledge that it’ll all over soon.  Yet, there’s also a sort of vulcanizing of the friendship elasticity and durability even in post-“breakup” of the friendship to create an everlasting peace with all the bad that’s happened.

Oscilloscope Laboratories, an indie label curating the filmic curiosities, releases “Vulcanizadora” to Blu-ray home video with an AVC encoded, 1080p Hi-Def resolution, BD25, presented curiously in an European widescreen 1.66:1aspect ratio, a standard proportion display you usually would primarily see in 1960s-1980s Europe with a slightly boxed and bordered matte.  A satisfiable picture for a character-driven slow burn aimed to build and destruct to build again a relationship between two friends during a time of individualized darkness is not a picture of perfection where certain areas inside the forest are out of focus and indistinct, such as the blending of orange and brown leaves on the ground in very long shots while capturing the principals traversing through.  Likely more of an issue with the cinematography than in compression because Potrykus uses 16mm to evoke a richer texture, “Vulcanizadora” is not a high-powered, action-packed thriller or sensational visual drama to be affected by it’s off-and-on focus.  Details are generally better around close-to-medium shot textures, skin tones appear organically accurate, and there’s decent depth of field inside a naturally limited color range.  There are some good close ups that do deviate, such as in a gorier graphic shot that impales more intrusive grain into the cell, in what is perhaps a limitation of 16mm zoomed in.  There are often indiscernible blips in the film stock because of its newer production but the grain, when not extended, is organic with an enriching natural aesthetic.  The English DTS-HD 5.1 surround sound is more than enough to cover all audio aspects from a precisely clear and clean dialogue to a Sasa Slogar’s sound design of comping operatic harmonies of soprano Maria Callas with the rough heavy metal soundscape of the Brazillian band Sepultura.  Dialogue retains in the forefront even in long shots when characters are at far points in the scene denoting an omission of depth in what is mostly a medium-to-close shot narrative.  English subtitles are optionally available.  Joel Potrykus, Joshua Burge, and cinematographer Adam J. Minnick provide an audio commentary track parallel to the feature with a making-of “Vulcanizadora,” deleted scenes, the theatrical trailer, and Potrykus’s short film, “Pets” to fill out the special features.  Oscilloscope Laboratories release comes in a clear Viva case with an unsettling yet telling death and video image in its cyborg-esque edge cover art and a reverse cover honed-in on a still image of the two protagonists.  Disc comes company typical pressed with the company logo large and in charge at the center and film title hovering over top.  The not rated release has a runtime of 85 minutes and is suitable for all region playback.

Last Rites: Few will relish in Potrykus’s “Vulcanizadora’s” slow-and-steady tragedy of deep depression and the crawling out of the fiasco unfolded, self-dug hole to find some sliver of peace and comfort in doing one right thing for a friend.

Catch “Vulcanizadora” on Blu-ray from Oscilloscope Laboratories!

An EVIL Drug That Can Cure Your Crabs and Boil Your Insides! “Private Blue” (SRS Cinema / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Private Blue” is on the case! DVD Now Available.

A new drug is on the streets of Edmonton, Alberta.  Call Shrink, the drug can produce a massive high and contains a high level of antivirals that can cure any sexually transmitted disease, but there’s a side effect.  If taken in a single excess amount, the drug can boil your insides, leaving nothing left.  The Edmonton police are stuck on the case with no leads and to make progress on the fast-moving drug epidemic that has now claimed the life of a daughter of a prominent sports booky, the department hires Tony Blue, an ex-cop now private investigator who can use unconventional means outside the scope of police authority to get the needed information, such as where Shrink is being peddled and produced.  Working down the vine, Blue runs through the hierarchy from street pushers to the manufacturing kingpin, a brusque and brutish strip club owner named Wanda who will stop at nothing and will not let anyone get in her way to fill the streets with her deadly, venereal disease-curing drug.

A comedic spin on the 1980’s lone wolf cop-thriller, “Private Blue” immerses itself into every trope manageable inside its indie budget with business in the front, party in the back mullets, bad guy chases and beatdowns, and a smoke-filled and color gel-brightened assortment of atmospheres that propagates the cop film neo noir aspects.  The accountable party behind this crass cop caper are a pair of brothers, Devin and Robert Burkosky, based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  The brothers produce, write, direct, and one-half star in what is their sophomore feature film behind the 2018 comedy-horror “Load Shark Massacre” that’s about a murderous loan shark who bites off more than he can chew.  Continuing the trend of drugs, violence, and psychotronic absurdities, “Private Blue” is an extension of their creative effort into crime action with a horror edge but with this time, they add a science-fiction element straight out of the boondocks of left field.   The feature is produced under the Burkosky company, Beechmont Entertainment. 

Robert Burkosky jumps into the titular role of “Private Blue” as a wisecracking and arrogant Tony Blue, an expelled detective because of his purloining of the evidence locker for his own needs, but Blue is a great chase-down detective, if not the best with his quick wit and adept situational skillset that makes him valuable.  Burkosky hams up Blue’s cocky attitude and Miami Vice-lite dress with linen blazer overtop a white tank top, sporting aviator glasses, and flaunting a greasy-looking mullet to accentuate the arrogance and confidence.  Opposite Burkosky is Moira MacKinnon as the larger-than-life adult industry head honcho and criminal mastermind Wanda who’s behind the manufacturing and distribution of the Shrink drug.  Having had a role in the Burkosky’s debut feature “Loan Shark Massacre” and was recently in their last film, the 2025 “Heat Score” that’s currently in post-production, MacKinnon’s a Burkosky go-to regular and her performance in “Private Blue” is perhaps my personal favorite with the Rita from “Power Rangers” voice and cackle and a maniacally expressed face as she bulldozes people into what she wants, no matter friend or foe.  “Private Blue’s” colorful cast doesn’t end there as there’s plenty of outrageous personalizes that are typical of a Burkosky brothers production, such as Tommy Grimes in drag playing the role of a female assigned stripper named Candy, Wolfgang Johnson as a low-level, guitar-playing, drug pusher, and Rod Wolfe as an older, mid-level dealer who wears various peppers around his neck like a necklace.  Dean Lonsdale, Ian Rowley, Dave Qurik, Kaley Leblanc, Jesse Hicks, Arielle McCuaig, Christian Stahl, and Brandi Strauss fill out the cast.

For what the Burkosky’s try to achieve in churning out “Private Blue” as a throwback of hard-boiled sleuth work, there’s success is select areas.  One of those successful portions is the phenomenally pastiche 80’s soundtrack by Robert Burkosky and the general aesthetic of the said decade with smoke-filled room illuminated by the gel lighting.  Wardrobing occasionally lands in the same era but there’s really no set point in time the story takes place but rather a mishmash of decades.  Devin and Robert, the latter quickly establishing himself as nearly a one-man show for the entire production, are competent editors that make “Private Blue” an easily digestible narrative.  What’s not easily digestible are the jokes that, for the most part, land flat.  The colorful characters do indeed entertain in their ineloquence and idiosyncrasies, but the script lacks that gut punch humor.  Instead, the script is riddled with fart gags, which personally I’m not a terrible fan of its audiological stink, and the jokes continue periodically throughout in every, or every other, scene of just randomized farting when a character sits, squats, or actually flatulates purposefully as a way of gag-inducing defense.  While most jokes don’t jive in jest, there are a handful that do, such as Tommy Grimes convincing our sexuality as dolled up sex worker Candy or Robert Burkosky’s lengthy slow-motion dance scene with a bunch of strippers at Wanda’s club.  Hilarity, as well as spurts of graphic violence, continue through whenever the story perversely changes course and mostly for the better. 

“Private Blue” is on the case.  Or, rather, is inside the case of an DVD Amaray with the release from ultra-indie underground label SRS Cinema.  The MPEG-2 encoded, standard definition 420p, DVD-R with the purple underbelly has a less-than-desired picture quality that’s par for the course with SRS Cinema.  Yet, all the sub-def eyesores are not terribly off-putting thanks to some decent camera equipment and know-how by the Burkoskys.  The palatable image has a flat grading only targeting contrast during it gel-lit scenes and the film is presented in 1.33:1 full screen that’s shot-on-videotape with uniform moments of interlacing.  Imaging produced is a result of a macro lens, encompassing even less within the standard framing and providing a flatter field that loses a bit of the depth.  The LPCM stereo mix that offers an ample dialogue track and range of audio layers that create a fair separation.  Robert Burkosky’s soundtrack epitomizes the balance between the layers when amplifying to make it the star of the scene.  Gun shots, thrown punches, and, even to an extent, the fart gags find the relative right level within a campy mix.  English captioning is available on this DVD.  Special features include a paralleling director’s commentary track, a blooper and outtake reel, the film’s trailer, and other SRS Cinema trailers.  SRS Cinema’s physical copy is standard fair but does showcase a blue-hued illustrative artwork that’s appealing and accurate with the same, but cropped, design pressed on the disc.  The 96-minute film comes not rated and is region free.

Last Rites: A debased tribute to the hard-boiled 80’s cop actioner, The Burkosky Brothers “Private Blue” has potential to be a great accolade of the subgenre as well as be funny but falls short with an overuse of pass gas gags and its inability to surpass that tenor.

“Private Blue” is on the case! DVD Now Available.

A Man Looking for Answers Finds EVIL in Tijuana Instead! “Cursed in Baja” reviewed! (Anchor Bay Entertainment / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Jeff Daniel Phillips’s “Cursed in Baja” on Blu-ray!

Ex-narcotics cop Pierlli is now a formerly incarcerated, rehabilitated man after suffering a mental breakdown from discovering the love of his life dead during a drug-fueled, kidnapping ordeal that sent him spiraling rogue.  Listless under medication and dragging his feet through the motions of a low paying maintenance man and janitorial job, Pierlli is contacted by his lover’s wealthy, depressed and dying parents to investigate and track down the disappearance of their grandson.  Reluctant to fall back into psychological swirl of pandemonium, he agrees to the case that leads him to Mexico despite the grandfather’s warnings of unsavory unlawful dealings with criminals .  After a few interviews with the grandson’s known associates, gathered by previous detectives who have since disappeared, he’s able to locate the now young man, living in cohabitation with a peculiar pair of outlying summoners who sacrifice the unwelcomed to a native beast of the land, a vicious chupacabra.

Out from under the cinematic and musical thumb the Rob Zombie rockabilly show, Jeff Daniel Phillips emerges with a project his shocking rocking collaborator and friend is not attached to in any way, shape, or form.  “Curse in Baja” is Phillips’s sophomore feature-length film in over a decade since the 2009 jailhouse thriller “Convict,” starring Kevin Durand, and too like his debut film, Phillips also provides the screenplay for the 2024 film that’s described as crime noir meets surrealist horror from Los Angeles to Tijuana.  “Curse in Baja” is a Camp Lee and Indigo Vision production with Kent Isaacs coproducing with Phillips as well as having a role and the revitalized Anchor Bay Entertainment execs Brian Katz and Thomas Zambeck supplying financials in support to release the movie on home video, co-presented with Traverse Terror, a company we’ve seen light of recently and covered films with “Bag of Lies” being the most recent.

Phillips not only produces, writes, and directs, he also stars as the troubled Pierlli, opening up his introduction in a non-linear fashion under a character self-describing, self-loathing voiceover narration revolving around the woman he fell for, hinting at her forlorn fate, his own transgressions stemmed for lost, and how belittled his once formidable self has become after being released from prison.  Inner monologuing picks up here-and-there where narrative leaves off in a quasi-glint of personal elucidation about the characters and situations he finds himself amid, troubleshooting his own inners demons that could destroy him if he goes down the rabbit hole of grief again.  Yet, besides Pierlli’s vague thoughts and descriptions, characters brought not the fold have a prefabrication establishment that’s already patched them into narrative blanket and, for audiences, understanding these characters and see where they piece into the noir pie becomes very dense and chewy, tough to work out their role because much of the backstory is loaded into the chamber before viewers can digest everything mentioned in Pierlli’s opening narration of elongated events.  Jim Storm (“Trilogy of Terror”) and Constance Forslund (John Carpenter’s “Village of the Damned”) are tragic-saturated grandparents who will do anything to find their grandson, but their subtle persona richness filled with terminal illness, alcoholism, grief stricken, and a sordid past is greatly deprecated by little involvement in the rest of the story and their unexplained bad history in the network of how things came to be how they are now.  Instead, their retained lawyer (Mark Fite) has more skin and dialogue in the game of tracking down the grandson, played by the front man Finnegan Seeker Bell of alternative rock band Love Ghost in another character that’s spotty being sensical.  Kent Isaacs as a chupacabra keeper, Jacqueline Wright as a dancing evoker of the beast, Jacely Fuentes as a double dipping girlfriend, and Jose Conejo Martin as a Mexican music mogul and hardcore gangster, too, had shapelessness around defining themselves in character to serve what is a fever dream of past guilt and present lore clashing into a surreal tailspin from Pierlli’s visceral viewpoint.  The only character I could truly make sense and understand is “Re-Animator’s” Barbara Crampton’s short-stint warden role. 

I get “Cursed in Baja” is an indie production with nearly a zero-dollar budget and limited, on-hand advantages.  I get Jeff Daniel Phillips has a knack for the obscure, the off-putting, and the odd.  I get horror is subjective and you make what you get out of it.  With all that being said, “Cursed in Baja” doesn’t speak to me on a level I can fully appreciate, understand, or decipher through the opaque narrative stuck in its own adrift design.  Aspects of the nonlinear course and often repeating multiple same scenes doesn’t beat one down into following along but there’s also a rhythm that does denote Pierlli’s neurosis.  Though chaotic at times, Marc Cohen’s editing captures Pierlli’s agitational anarchy that plagues his nightmares and splits his reality seemingly down the middle of an already drug-and-crime fuel Mexicali affair the ex-con and lawman tries desperate not to repeat, but like any good sage person will tell you, we’re all given the opportunity to repeat dooming ourselves and relive past mistakes.  That’s Pierlli’s Pandora’x box and his Achillies heel, no matter how much he attempts to deflect himself out of the physically crippling investigation, he must sally forth again to find answers for the love he let down.  If he doesn’t, that do-nothing stagnation will ultimately destroy him faster.  I’m sure there are merits to Phillips’ first feature in over a decade, but “Curse in Baja” is all over the place, missing key interlocking points of the nomadic concepts to cement better coherency when switching gears between genres.

Anchor Bay’s third film of the first three releases released by the revitalized company by Brian Katz and Thomas Zambeck, “Cursed in Baja” receives exclusive at-home video rights with an AVC encoded, high-definition 1080p, BD25. The single layer is all this story requires with low-impact, mostly psychological thriller that relies heavily on Marc Cahon’s overlapping fade in-fade out and rough-cut, around-again editing to shoulder the burden of entertaining with Pierlli’s meandering mental melancholy. The compressed image quality provides no qualms for a standard, under-bedazzled indie production in widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Color saturation varies depending on toggling contrast levels, likely a result of the when-we-can shoot scenes methodology of low budget films. Blacks are not as deep as desired but there’s no signs of artefacts in the void and that suppresses any of kind of resentment toward a lighter shade of the grayscales darker side. The audio comes with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix. Though lossy, the format retains consistency in a rather heavily vague gumshoe of exposition with not too much crime centric and chupacabra chomping bytes to make or break the fidelity. Dialogue is clean in voiceover as well as in-scene with a favorable soundscape under Vaaal’s eclectic clouded haunt of industrial and discordant string. English subtitles are optional. Special features are limited to feature length commentary by Jeff Daniel Phillips and a making-of featurette with Phillips walking through a shooting location and discussing his ventured process. The Amaray case sports a grindhouse cover art character compilation with no other physical attributes included. The 80-minute, unrated feature is encoded with region free playback.

Last Rites: Jeff Daniel Phillips’s personal stick-and-glue “Cursed in Baja” works to a point off of the auteur’s ambition and who’s in his back pocket network of talented friends eager to lend their niche or locations to create noir delirium a la mode.

Jeff Daniel Phillips’s “Cursed in Baja” on Blu-ray!