Tall, handsome, and witty CIA agent Nick West is about to go on a much-needed vacation. As soon as he steps outside of headquarters, he’s approached by British agent Colonel Baisbrook to cash in a favor the CIA owes the British government. Unable to refuse, West agrees to investigate the assassination plot against one President Boong of an unnamed East Asian country. The assassins are nothing short of extraordinary as a bunch of femme fatale infiltrators have put themselves in positions of power all over the globe as wives and girlfriends of nation leaders and President Boong is the only one that has refused to take the bait. West and his good friend Tommy Carter find themselves quipping and philandering amongst the most dangerous female-centric organization on the planet, led by the ruthless and beautiful Sumuru. To protect President Boong, West must become friendly with Sumuru who uses his likeness in a new elimination plot that puts him front, center, and in between saving the world or watch the men become subservient by an ambitious woman seeking world domination.
Double agents. Foreign places. Secret lairs. Suave operatives. Sexy women. These descriptors are the very spirit of a James Bond movie. At the height of the Sean Connery 007 era, plenty of knockoffs were produced to capitalize on the action and sex appeal of martini-drinking covert agent that rules the 1960s. One of those copies was helmed by Lindsay Shonteff in 1967, titled “The Million Eyes of Sumuru.” The “Devil Doll” and “Voodoo Blood Bath” director had already an espionage thriller under his directorial belt with “The 2nd Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World,” I bet you can guess who the first was during that time. Kevin Kavanagh pens the script from the original story by legendary B-movie producer Harry Alan Towers (“The Face of Fu Manchu,” “Psycho-Circus”) that would become an incongruously and acerbically witty-tale of pseudo-feminism with hot pursuits, sensual promiscuity, and a dart gun that can turn a person to stone. Towers also produces “The Million Eyes of Sumuru” under his LLC and filmed in Hong Kong at the Shaw Brothers Studios.
As Sean Connery heats up the screen with his double 0 escapades through all over the global to thwart the men of evil and with an astounding amount of carbon copy espionage reels rearing to chase the all mighty buck, “The Million Eyes Sumuru” desperately needed a cast to keep afloat in a flooded spy film market. For the most part, Towers and Shonteff’s cast pull off exactly what the story needed, a caricature of crowning chuckles subdued only by its slivers of spy game ventures. That’s not to say there’s an abundance of gun play and fight sequences with terrific tussling as “House of 1,000 Doll’s” George Nadar uses his tall stature and ear-to-ear smile to be a lover, not a fighter in the wise-crackin’ American CIA agent Nick West. West destroys the all-women Sumuru arsenal with just his manliness in a satirical jab at Ian Fleming’s titular protagonist and, for all intent and purposes, it works in the story to see Sumuru’s plans become ruined by not a gun nor a fist but because women in her organization, even Sumuru (Shirley Eaten, “Goldfinger”) herself, throw themselves onto him at critical moments and Nadar’s timing and screen charm laps every second of it. Frankie Avalon (“Horror House”) and Wilfred Hyde-White (“The Third Man”) play Nick West’s allies as friend Tommy Carter and cavalier British agent Colonel Baisbrook who both play in two totally different capacities. Tommy Carter equals West witticisms but falls behind as the friend who must journey solo to find West in the middle of Asia while Baisbrook effortlessly shows up in the nick of time to be either a savior or West’s handler with another mission in his pocket for West to reluctantly tackle. A pair of principals that are held at bay is the beautiful Maria Rohm (“99 Women”) and the eccentric Klaus Kinski (“Nosferatu the Vampyre”) whose swift takes leave more to be desired as Rohm becomes weak-kneed on her Sumuru femme fatale application and Kinski plays drug-addicted, politically incorrect, and perverse president of this untitled Asian country.
“The Million Eyes of Sumuru” contests to be a smartly funny, exotically set, and action-invested covert operative film of the late 60s, swimming against the current of some of the hard to beats and who have more of a legacy in the subgenre. While “The Million Eyes of Sumuru might be more Swinging 60’s with cavalierism rather than sophistication and intent, the production value could rival the best Bond film of it’s time but it’s the stunts that drive this one down below the bar as Shonteff looks toward George Nadar’s quick wit and budding personality to be the masculine sex symbol that drives the rabid female race to their supposed manhating knees. Its quite comical to see a firm line of feminism course through the plot’s veins, a plot where deadly women penetrate and subvert men world leaders only to become a slave to West’s dunce charm and attractive appearance. West really isn’t the smartest of secret agents as he’s not trying to evade capture with rapid haste or fool anybody of his intentions; instead, he’s just mildly clever with broad shoulders and, apparently, that’s what women droll over instead of carrying out their loyalty pact of a global coup d’etat.
Swinging onto the 4k Ultra HD Blu-ray bandwagon is the Blue Underground’s 2-Disc combo set UHD and Standard Blu-ray release of “The Million Eyes of Sumuro.” The HEVC encoded, 2164p resolution, BD66 has picture quality absolution with a stunning brand-new 4K restoration transfer from the original 35mm camera negative thought originally lost. The rich and colorful picture hits all the important markers with balanced film density that diffuses the hues nicely into every aspect of depth and focus, from the background to the foreground. This goes for texture too. No matter where an object lies in the frame, there’s an accurate representation in the reproduction inside the immense range of color schemes, landscapes, and textures. Delineation is quite pleasing; the close ups of George Nader’s face exhibit ever facial feature with precision without appearing overly bright or smoothed. The AVC encoded, 1080p resolution, BD50 Blu-ray captures much of the same finer points too on a slimmer pixel count but still denotes Blue Underground’s improved restoration, complete with inky blacks and no compressional misses to sully the quality. The extended cut adds approx. 10 minutes of additional footage, which in these cases can often be less-than-pristine upon discovery of the elements but the additional scenes are seamlessly blended into previous releases’ runtime, suggesting the print was greatly protected from all harmful exterior factors. A single channel English DTS-HD mono is the only mix available. Though standard and not as dynamic as more modern audio designs, the uncompressed track provides superb fidelity clearness, cleanliness, and with an even-keeled throughout. The snappy dialogue shows prominence amongst a wide-berth range of surrounding elements. There’s a blend of ADR and live recording, much to the chagrin of the Asian actors who have their English post-dubbed with a more accented stereotype. English SDH are optionally available. Capacity limitations on the UHD keep disc one to just two audio commentaries: Film academics David Del Valle and Dan Marino on the first commentary with usual commentary notables Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth on the second. These commentaries are encoded on the Standard Blu-ray version of the film, accompanied by a new feature-length documentary England’s Unknown Exploitation Film Eccentric: The Schlock-Cinema Legacy of Lindsay Shonteff that has historian interviewees, such as Kim Newman, discuss the brilliance of Shonteff’s work amongst the espionage thrillers of the time, an exclusive RiffTrax Edition of the film, riffed by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy, the theatrical trailer, and the poster and still gallery. It’s always a pleasure and a thrill to have tactile elements on the Blue Underground O-slips, such as this release with the embossed title overtop and below the memorable packed compositional, illustrated artwork. The slightly thicker black Amaray casing houses the same artwork with a reverse side of the original Blue Underground DVD artwork. Each interior side contain each format disc, pressed individual with the same cover arts, with the Blu-ray on the left and the UHD on the right. Encoded for all region playback, “The Million Eyes of Sumuru” now clocks in at 89 minutes and is not rated.
Last Rites: “The Million Eyes of Sumuru” has a million positives – a farce of the espionage subgenre, cheekily acted, exotic locations, and an extended, clean-cut version from Blue Underground – to name a few that quickly surmises the Lindsay Shonteff film to be the golden gun of his repertoire.
A killer emerges out of the depths of an Amsterdam canal and mercilessly kills a prostitute, dragging her into the water, and suspends her lifeless, stabbed-riddled corpse over one of the canal bridges. Detective Eric Visser is baffled by the canal killer’s unusual technique but aims to track down the bravado murderer while living the single dad life with daughter Anneke. When another couple of heinous killings takes place out in the middle of the water and the mutilated bodies wash ashore, panic begins to creep into administrative officials with the thought of a scuba diving maniac swimming in the hundreds of Amsterdam canals. Investigating the underwater hobby leads Visser to meet Laura, a diving enthusiast and museum tour guide who sparks instantly with the ruggedly handsome detective, but as the Visser gets closer to the truth and the killer, Laura becomes emmeshed in a crime that’s deadlier than an embolism.
If scuba diving wasn’t already deadly enough, the murky waters of canal rivulets become the hunting grounds of a deranged, underwater killer in Dick Maas’s 1988 Dutch crime thriller “Amsterdamned.” The elevator horror filmmaker of “The Lift” Maas wrote and directed the red-running canal of carnage with a fast-paced, action-packed, hard-boiled, giallo film outside the conventional Italia-construction. Shot mostly in the red-light district capital of the world of Amsterdam, shooting locations also include Utrecht to accommodate additional speedboat scenes, plus studio work in Leiden and Heemstede, Netherland. Maas self produces the action-horror alongside Lauren Geels, a longtime collaborator with Maas who’ve worked previously on comedies “Voyeur” and “Flodders” and subsequent projects, such as the English-dialogued apocalyptic drama “The Last Island” helmed by provocative feminist filmmaker Marleen Gorris and Maas’s own American remake of “The Lift,” known as “The Shaft” or “Down.” “Amsterdamned” is distributed theatrically by First Floor Pictures.
Huub Stapel (“The Cool Lakes of Death,” “The Lift”) stars as the world-weary, tough as nails cop Eric Visser. Also, as a single dad raising a small preteen and nearly self-independent child Anneke (Tatum Dagelet, ”Stuk!”), the setup doesn’t automatically constitute the detective as a cynically hardboiled man of the law but evokes more of a seasoned and skeptical vigilant persona of a man who is willing to leave circumspection at the door when duty calls. Stapel wonderfully fits the bill of Eric Visser’s rugged and assured good looks with a force in tune with being a father and a police investigator when the occasion calls for it. Being a single father also invites the opportunity to spark an exciting love interest to later put into danger. The infectious smile of Monique van de Ven (“Turkish Delight,” “A Woman Like Eve”) fills that void as Stapel and Ven engage in teetering flirtation that makes us wonder how astute is Visser now on a case that’s causing havoc on the streets of, or rather the waterways of, Amsterdam. Luckily, fellow police partners Vermeer (Serge-Henri Valcke, “Sl8n8”) and John van Meegeren (Wim Zomer), the latter a professional scuba diver and once jealous rival lover of Visser, keep the detective mostly focused with investigative conversation, joint crime scene speculation, and the gruesome death of one of them when they get too close. That ancient rivalry between Visser and Meegeren stays put in the re-introduction of their assembly with no hard feelings and bygones will be bygones attitude, missing the change for any exterior or addition tension outside the murderer’s reign of terror. “Amsterdamned” rounds out the cast with Lou Landré, Tanneke Hartzuiker, and Hidde Maas.
The fascinating aspect of Dick Maas’s “Amsterdamned” is taking the idyllic, ingrained, and utilitarian that is a cultural and landmark staple of Amsterdam and turning into an unpleasant gateway of fear and anxiety. Transferring soundbite cues and following a storyline that’s not terribly too dissimilar from that of Steven Speilberg’s iconic oceanic death-dealing “Jaws,” and toss in Dick Maas’s enthusiastic fervor for a heart-racing effervescence, and you have the singular crime-thriller “Amsterdamned” in a nutshell that’s doesn’t deliver trite and uninspired horror or thrills but rather spoils the innate grandeur of a worldclass city that’s soaked in splendor as well as carnal sin; a fact lost upon espionage thrillers who overuse “Amsterdam” as an assembly of salvo and high-speed chases. Maas does add his own variation of high-speed chase with a lengthy and complex speedboat pursuit through the on-site in Amsterdam and Utrecht canals with gripping and well edited ramp jumps and fiery explosions that predate some of the more renowned speedboat chases of modern cinema. What’s also interesting about “Amsterdamned” is the adversary that doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles to make a convoluted story stick; instead, the killer is rather simply pieced together but descriptively held at bay until the finale for maximum suspense on unveiling the identity.
Surfacing just beneath the depths is a 2K restoration from the original 35mm negative, approved by Dick Maas, from Blue Underground; however, these Blu-ray specs mirror the 2017 Blu-ray and DVD combo set and is more than likely the same transfer but for this standard edition, also labeled special edition, release. The single disc, AVC encoded, BD50 is presented in high-definition 1080p and in a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Color saturation stands out here with a specified density that results in a pop of color and a diffusion of light that’s brilliant and revealing in the day without a bleeding wash and cold, wet, and with a noir-like steeliness at night, accentuated by inky solid shadows. The original 35mm print has flawless approach into the restoration that makes the 2K scan candid and, perhaps, a walk in the park for another Blue Underground upgrade to high-definition in their established genre catalogue. The original Dutch soundtrack is presented in a 5.1 DTS-HD, greatly tightened around the milieu and dialogue to isolate each track for separation and clarity. Dick Maas, a filmmaker of many talents, scores his own feature with an unintrusive and dynamic soundtrack that ebbs and flows with the trepidation terror and tension-riddled action. Dialogue is clean and clear but does have that ADR artificiality to it. English subtitles render over promptly and error free. Two other soundtrack mixes are available on the dual layer disc: a lossless hybrid English-Dutch 2.0 DTS-HD and a French dubbed and lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. English SHD and Spanish subtitles are also optionally available. Extras are pulled from the previous Blue Underground release and are an audio commentary from writer/director/composer Dick Maas and editor Hans van Dungen, a making of “Amsterdamned,” an interview with star Huub Stapel Tales from the Canal, an interview with stunt coordinator Dickey Beer Damned Stuntwork, the Dutch and US trailer, the Lois Lane music video directed by Dick Maas, and poster and still galleries. Behind the wild ride illustrated composition of the Blu-ray front cover, the reverse cover lists the encoded scene chapters on top of one of Huub Stapel’s stunt work performances. The disc is pressed with the masked scuba diver head holding a gleaming diver’s knife cover art from Blue Underground’s limited-edition Blu-ray and DVD combo set of 2017. The all region encoded disc holds a 113-minute feature and is rated R.
Last Rites: If looking to save a buck against purchasing the limited edition, dual format combo set, the standard special edition Blu-ray of “Amsterdamned” is worth it, especially since the film has been absent from U.S. home markets up until 2017. Dick Maas is a premier Dutch horror filmmaker with the ability to keep us engaged as well as on edge.
Hardcore punk band Ain’t Rights struggle to make ends meet as they syphon gas and crash at a pursual journalist’s apartment just to make it across country to the west coast. When the initial paying gig falls through the cracks, the journalist’s backup plan is his cousin’s spot out in the isolated Pacific Northwest for decent pay. The only downside to the job is it’s at a neo-Nazi bar. A successful go-hard set pays off until one fatal witness of a heinous murder confines the band to the bar’s green room and outside, waiting, are plotting neo-Nazi’s concocting a cover up strategy that doesn’t let the Ain’t Rights see another day alive. Surrounded with nowhere to go, the ruthlessly calculating skinheads use attack dogs, machetes, and other vicious tactics to keep the Ain’t Rights from escaping and learning the truth behind the skinheads’ already sordid and bigoted movement but the tightknit band won’t go quietly down without fighting for their very lives.
If there is any chance of seeing Captain Jean-Luc Picard himself, the knighted Sir Patrick Stewart, act in a neo-Nazi leadership role, then everyone should share the experience of just how terrifying Stewart can be as a cold-hearted villain. Jeremy Saulnier’s breakout 2015 film, chockfull of violence and suspense, titled “Green Room” is masterclass grit for survival and to never underestimate the underdog. Saulnier, the debut filmmaker of 2007’s “Murder Party,” wrote and directed the film shot on site in the densely large forests of Oregon and set the stage for being one of the truest and vehement hardcore punk-laced stories to be told that happens to have a side dish of killer instinct. Produced by Neil Kopp (“Paranoid Park”), Victor Moyers (“Orphan: First Kill”), Brian S. Johnston (“Wish Upon”), and actor and longtime Jeremy Saulnier associates, Macon Blair and Anish Savjani, “Green Room” is a production of Broad Green Pictures and Film Science.
Though Sir Patrick Steward is a thespian legend, having been in numerous films and stage plays in the decades of the practice, practically a household name amongst fanatical and the casual moviegoer, the now 83-year-old English actor is not the principal star of “Green Room.” That falls under the late Anton Yelchin in his late theatrical role. The established new kid on Hollywood’s block, having seen success in roles from “Alpha Dog,” “Star Trek,” to “Terminator: Salvation” along with indies such as “Odd Thomas,” and yet was still an up-and-coming young actor who tragically joined the infamous urban legend of the 27 club, where celebrities have died too young at the age of 27, Amy Winehouse and Kurt Cobain are also members of this pop culture phenomena, helmed as lead guitar Pat of the fictional punk band called the Ain’t Rights and Pat becomes intwined as spokesperson to negotiate with Darcy, the manipulatively devious neo-Nazi leader played by Sir Patrick Stewart. Yelchin’s realistic approach to do the right thing favors the nervously anxious and uncertain body language amongst an already prejudice crowd who are known to be unpredictable and dangerous. Stewart’s role is emotionless but not taciturn as Darcy who quickly and cleverly decides the fate of witnesses to a brutal murder inside his place of business in what is nearly a duplicated performance from Stewart’s role in “Conspiracy Theory,” as the calm and collected Dr. Jonas eager to get his hands on Mel Gibson’s agitated knowledge of secret dubious schemes. Pat fights for his life whereas Darcy plans for his death and Yelchin and Stewart apt those two behaviors in a contrast of contention. Yelchin is backed by his costars, aka Ain’t Right bandmates, Alia Shawkat (“The Final Girls”), Joe Cole (“Pressure”), and Collum Turner (“Victor Frankenstein”) along with a traitor of the fascist cause in Imogen Poots (“28 Weeks Later”) who, in varying degrees, deal with being mice caught inside a shoebox inside a cat factory. As for the skinheads, a lot is squeezed out from Macon Blair’s Gabe, an uneasy, unsure, bordering fumbling go-along neo-Nazi, as Darcy’s plan unfolds and pivots into more and more of the uncomfortable for the character, but for the rest of the skinheads, such as Clark (Kai Lennox, “Apartment 143”) the dog handler, Big Justin (“Eric Edelstein, “The Hills Have Eyes 2”), and even Darcy don’t fully flesh out once they’re fully engaged in the problem at hand. David Thompson (“Fear Street: Part 1”), Brent Werzner, Taylor Tunes (“The Motel ‘6’”), and Mark Webber (“13 Sins”) fill out the cast.
The ”Green Room” narrative is in itself very punk, following an ethos of anti-establishment and a do-it-yourself anarchist pathway in protest for what is right and against greed. Engrained is the very subculture “Green Room” exposes on the surface level but the essence of the direct action is right there in front of us the whole time soaked into a group of true believers of the punk music and movement, struggling with less than nothing to live on, are trying to do what’s right after witnessing the aftermaths of a gruesome murder and wants to correct the action immediately despite seemingly to look like they would turn the other cheek toward crime. Instead, they have to go against the xenophobic-authoritarian grain with nothing but grit and whatever is in proximity of arms’ length. Authenticity is so important to writer-director Jeremy Saulnier and to the film’s success that the Ain’t Right actors actually play the instruments and perform the music themselves with a couple of them learning how to be instrument proficient for the character and the story. Another truth attributed to the “Green Room” is Saulnier penchant for graphic violence. From the very first fray, the tone sets in at grim and grue with no one being safe and no one pegged to be the clearcut hero from the get-go. “Green Room” is viscerally charged, uncompromisingly bloody, and embodies all the best characteristics of punk.
In the 9 years since the film’s release, nearly 8 years since Anton Yelchin’s untimely death, the “Green Room” finally receives the attention and respect it deserves with a new and deluxe limited edition collector’s set from UK distributor Second Sight Films. The 2-Disc, 4K UHD and Blu-ray set, presenting the feature in a widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio, offers the ultra-high definition resolution Dolby Vision to brings to the table the best image representation possible and what lands is a delineated and detailed image that’s de facto devoid of any kind of compression artefacts. Blacks saturate without losing contours or bearing the brunt of banding or posterization and distinctly lays out the color palette with an overlay of some dingy-filmed gel lighting in a few scenes inside the neo-Nazi club or low-key lighting in other areas, again in the club or even outside the club, that usually tend to see more problems which is non-existent in this conversion. The transfer fairs well within the smaller UHD range of a HVEC encoded BD66 capacity while still leaving room for bonus content. The 2K scanned Blu-ray is AVC encoded BD50 renders nearly an identical in faultless image quality, decoding at the same rate of 23-24Mbps, yet still an inferior presentation to the 4K with the depth of detail. Both video transfers are clean yet the upgrade to UHD bests all other releases to date. Both formats offer a lossless English language DTS-HD 5.1 master audio mix that are identical technically and to the untrained/trained ear, offering clean, true fidelity with a punk rock soundtrack that’s welcoming hardcore yet can differentiate between the layers with a clean, prominent dialogue and near proximity ambience. Depth and range are good on both accounts but add little to the creation of suspense as much of that area is handled by situational context and depiction of graphic violence. English subtitles are optionally available. The software special features include a new audio commentary by film critics Reyna Cervantes and Prince Jackson, an older, archival commentary by writer-director Jeremy Saulnier, a new interview with the director Going Hardcore, a new interview with actor Callum Turner Punk Rock, a new interview with composes Brooke and Will Blair Rocking Out, and a new interview with production designer Ryan Warren Smith Going Green. Also found on the special features are the Thomas Caldwell on “Green Room” archival featurette Nazi Punks Fuck Off and the making of the film, a behind-the-scenes featurette Into the Pit. Hardware special features, that we all love from Second Sight’s limited-edition sets, come with that rigid box slipcase with new artwork by commercial illustrator Adam Stothard, a 120-page new essay book with contributions by Eugenio Ercolani and Gian Giacomo, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Josh Hutardo, Jolene Richardson, Shelagh Rowan-Legg, and Thomas Watson, and six collectors’ art cards to round out the contents in a nice tight and quietly opulent sensational packaging. The region free UHD and region B set is UK certified 18 for strong blood violence and gore with a runtime of 95 minutes.
Last Rites: This new and limited edition “Green Room” release is red hot and the deserving, contemporary thriller, the last for the gone-too-soon Anton Yelchin, couldn’t have been better curated by a more devil-in-the-detail and fan-focused label of Second Sight Films.
Paula Carson seems to be the eye of affection. The popular, walk-the-line student and high school cheerleader finds fast-and-loose fun as the girlfriend of jock and overall jocular lesson slacker Dwight but is also pursued by Brian, a loner recently released from the mental hospital after killing his father, and even the quirky principal Mr. Dante who can’t careen his aberrant attention away from his lovely young student. When faculty and students go missing and the vice principal is found brutally murdered, the recently released, convicted criminally insane Brian becomes the prime suspect and flees the scene, but days later coming out of hiding, Brian pleas with Paula to help convince people he’s innocent of the crime and not responsible for those missing. Suspicions and accusations disperse in many directions as a killer continues to thin out the student body with Paula stuck at the center of the killer’s chaos.
Many of today’s A-lister leading men have had a role in a horror film at one point in time early in their careers. Before being the face of the latest “Ocean’s 11” films, George Clooney starred in “Grizzly II: Revenge” and “Return to Horror High” in the 1980s. Before being a lovable halfwit with good fortunate in “Forrest Gump” and the voice of Woody in “Toy Story, Tom Hanks’ debut feature was “He Knows You’re Alone,” a horror-thriller about stalked woman unable to escape a serial killer. Then, there’s Clooney’s “Ocean 11” co-star Brad Pitt and he’s no exception to the rule with “Cutting Class,” an American high school melodrama with strong hints of the slasher genre helmed by a not-so-American director in “Excalibur” adaptation screenwriter Rospo Pallenberg from the United Kingdom. The script is penned by Steve Slavkin which would turn out to be his one and only feature film work before remaining in television. Shot in Los Angeles, the April Productions and Gower Street Pictures film is produced by Donald R. Beck and Rudy Cohen, who the latter went on to produce “Feardotcom” and “The Black Dahlia.”
A youthfully green Brad Pitt joins the remake of the “The Blob’s” Donovan Leitch and “The Stepfather’s” Jill Schoelen in an unfolding love triangle of student shenanigans, peer pressure, and murderous suspicion. Pitt plays Dwight, a popular basketball stud with a carefree attitude that’s slowly being chipped away by his parents, teachers, and even girlfriend Paula to be more responsible and forward thinking. As Paula, Schoelen indulges herself into the perfect student who is studious, kind, and beautiful that attracts seemingly all walks of school hallway life from peers to teachers and doesn’t even bat an eyelash about it either by obliviousness or just likes to lap up the attention. Leitch as the school misfit Brian Woods dons the oversized black blazer and soft-spikey hair to give his character more of an edge, but the script is thin on showcasing Brian to feel like an outcast or even makes the protuberant effort of a character convicted murderer, mentally unstable and recently deinstitutionalized. Leitch crafts his own approach to elevate Brain Woods into that persona while teetering the line of being a suspected bad or good guy for the approx. 90 minute runtime. Acting legends Martin Mull and Roddy McDowall are integrated into more cameo roles that are running gags on the comedic side of “Cutting Class’s” genre blend. “Clue’s” Mull, playing as the district attorney and Paula’s father going duck hunting for the weekend, has an orbiting role that surrounds the whodunit trunk narrative with subplot intercut scenes after he’s been perforated with an arrow and crawls back to civilization, amusingly frustrated and weary as he continues to be passed by and stepped on while in the muck. McDowell’s absurdity is illuminated in a different objectifying light as a sock-covering mic sniffer with a giddy perversion for Paula. See McDowell gawk at the stretched panties of a bent over Jill Shoelen made me personally feel really uncomfortable, perhaps I still see McDowall as the heroic Fearless Vampire Hunter Peter Vincent from “Fright Night” and can’t unseen him to be anything else, especially a smirking, sexualizing oddball. “Cutting Class” fills out the cast with Brenda James (“Slither”), Mark Barnet, Robert Glaudini (“Parasite”), Dirk Blocker (“Prince of Darkness”), Eric Boles (“C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud”), Nancy Fish (“Exorcist III”), and Robert Machray.
Prefacing this review’s analysis, I understand “Cutting Class’s” campy comedy intentions before its backlot slasher sublet. The smell of teen palaver and mischievous comedy odorously laces the late 80’s production and its eccentric character, more so with the latter of the two. This also includes sexual perversities to run rampant in what was then a free-for-all of anything goes types of behavior. Character Paula Carson, the near epitome of good high school student, becomes the lust of every principal male character with a hypersexualization of her innocence. Paula, cladded with a short skirt and white panties, can’t get through many of her earlier scenes without being objectified. She’s penned to bend straight over, exposing her panties, and have Principal Mr. Dante gleaming with a grin and gawk in his hots for the student, caught half naked washing her hair over the bathtub, caught in a conversational scene with suspected killer Brian Woods, and is repeatedly pleaded with by Dwight to take advantage of her father being not home for extra circular activities. Not to forget to mention constantly being googly eyed by all three throughout the picture. It’s funny how this particular perception becomes the one thing to catch my eye and discuss as it speaks to the kind of depraved person, I am but also factors into what “Cutting Class” really is, a dumb movie. The sit back and enjoy the ride type of teen-comedy, semi-slasher hits upon most of the benchmarks expected of a Pallenburg slasher made in a America with a fair amount of personal style and not enough connective tissue to strengthen the bond between the two battling genres. For example, the out of left field satire of Martin Mull’s swampy trek back to civilization has the detached sensation of an out of place running gag, lost amongst the rest of the film by the lack of detail (Mull’s character is shot with an arrow but has seemingly healed miraculously as he’s able to crawl and walk back to the suburbs) and spatial awareness (Paula’s class fieldtrip to the very same swamp Mull’s character was shot, making the area appear in proximity to the high school and suburbs instead of isolated backwoods).
MVD Visual, through the MVD Rewind Collection, proudly presents “Cutting Class” on a new 4K UHD and Blu-ray 2-disc set. Both scans of the 35mm original camera negative are from the Vinegar Syndrome 2018 restored print; however, MVD’s LaserVision Collection edition is the first fully functional 4K resolution with a HEVC encoded, Ultra High-Definition 2160p, BD66 as well as tagging along an AVC encoded, High-Definition 1080p, BD50. Can’t complain at all about this print despite negligible differences other than the increased resolution in HDR10, a format that often misrepresents true image fidelity with irregularity. Yet, we don’t see that that really here with a shade darker image that results rounder delineation on the characters and objects. Same can be said about the 1080p, a crisp image defines mostly through. There are rough patches of varying grain levels within the 1.85:1 aspect ratio presentation that leave a scene or two looking optically haggard for a brief moment as if stretched and overly granulated. Grading design has a natural 35mm film saturation that’s robust with a vast range of hues that don’t bleed or run together, sticking to distinction rather than attempting to be fancy to a fault. The audio options on both formats include a lossless PCM 2.0 mono and a lossy Dolby Stereo. For better fidelity, the uncompressed PCM really opens up the English inlaid audio mix by appealing to vigorously clear and forefront dialogue with ambience and soundtrack firmly encroaching but stays firmly moderate in the depth. There’s a nice breadth of effects captured, such as the machine shop climax with isolating each cutting, sawing, and drilling tool’s specific sound in its specific space. English subtitles are optionally available. Special features mostly reside on the Blu-ray disc as the UHD’s capacity is limited to just 66 gigabytes, barely enough for higher dynamic resolution feature with the only additional supplementary being the HD theatrical trailer. On the Blu-ray, a quite a few Vinegar Syndrome produced content is encoded into this release in what practically a mirrored 1080p copy with an interview with actress Jill Schoelen who, in summing up her discussion of “Cutting Class,” would love to erase this film from her memory and career bank, an interview with Donovan Leitch and his experiences hired in on the role as well as working with the cast and crew, a Kill Comparisons featurette that contrasts the edited and unrated feature kill scenes with additional seconds added into for more gruesome, lingering effects, the VHS retailer promo Find the Killer and Win, and the original theatrical trailer. Also included is the 91-minute R-rated edit with the shorter death scenes, but I don’t understand why anyone would want to watch something edited. Like the first three MVD LaserVision Collector’s Editions, the fourth entry is incorporated with retro finesse that doesn’t stray away from original marketing elements. The cardboard O-slipover views as a porthole into the original poster art of the three principal characters. A black Amary cover houses the same cropped encirclement of the characters but with a solid black other rim while inside the 4K disc (right side snapper) and the Blu-ray (left side snapper) each pay tribute to the laserdisc era in their own way. The insert houses a folded mini-poster of the slipcover design. The front cover is reversible with a complete poster element reduced to fit centered on the design with a wooden school desk serving with pencil, paper, and ringlets of blood as the border design. Unrated, region free, and with a runtime of 91 minutes, “Cutting Class” is worth skipping your school studies.
Last Rites: A highly favorable and upgraded release for the Brad Pitt startup campy teen slasher that confirms to us the actor hasn’t changed his acting method in the last 35 years, but “Cutting Class” doesn’t stand out amongst the masses of similar 80’s ilk with a fickle way of handling the nebulous and illusory villain killer on school grounds and an obtuse comedy angle too out of alignment to be risible. The only option left is to sit back, hit play, and soak into the mindless meat-and-potatoes.
Middle class professional Sara has just been mansplained how to be better at her job. Numb by the experience, the humiliating moment eats at Sara’s sanity like a nagging drip of a leaky pipe. In fact, drip sounds of a leaky sink invade her mental space as she nonchalantly places a towel and bucket under the constant dribble. When her boyfriend Ryan comes home, his exasperation is triggered by Sara’s acute indifference and he breaks up with her, mansplaining in bullet points the reasons this relationship has failed. Her blank stares send him off only to return later at the behest of his sister to make amends, but when he notices the leak and starts to mansplain and nitpick her solution, even though she called a plumber, the fed-up Sara stabs him in the eye and hides his body in the closet. When the plumber arrives and begins mansplaining and making gross advances, she stabs him as well and hides his body in the closet. Sara descends further into madness as the mansplaining and the dripping continue, and continue, and continue….
Mansplaining. The newly conjoined word, that’s combines man and explaining is defined as a man condescendingly explaining a process or a subject they, themselves, know little about and assume the knowledge extent of the other person is less than their own, was officially added to the U.S. dictionary in March of 2018 during the height of the #MeToo movement. Evan Jones, the man responsible for write and directing the substandard classics “Death Toilet” and its numerous killer commode sequels, is now behind “Mansplained,” a bareboned, indie psychological thriller self-described as Roman Polanski-esque and inspired from a story concept by SRS Cinema’s Ron Bonk who also produces the derogatory pejorative term and wokeness themed film alongside Jacobs’ microbudget production company Anhedenia Films.
One aspect of microbudget is a micro cast. Not only is Evan Jacobs the writer, director, and producer, the filmmaker with 52 directorial projects under his belt since 1995 also dons four different characters mansplaining to Sara, played vacantly by Angelique Flores, to show masculinity similarity as well as to save a little mullah on the production bottom line. Jacobs in multi-roles wouldn’t be so much of an issue if there putting in more variety of persona; instead, Jacobs just puts his own off-camera fundamentals into each role, rehashing the same guy, with the same inflections, with the same gestures, and with the same face and bald head. Perhaps that carbon copy plays into the formula of a faceless man creeping into Sara’s one bedroom apartment to tell her how it is and how it should be. I would like to think that’s how Evan Jacobs conveys this story but without any other real indicator that’s the vehicle we’re supposed to be taking a ride in, we’re still stuck at the curb waiting for our elucidation Uber to arrive. As Sara, a woman internally cracking under ignorant male chauvinism, Flores is given no lines nor direction to do anything but to stay virtually silent with a 1000-yard stare. Even when at a boiling spillage point where stabbing is the only way to mute mansplaining, there’s no fire in Flores’s eyes nor any searing-red anger people sometimes go blind to when up to their eyeballs in fury. Sara stultifies about her apartment, looking out the window, looking the drip under the sink, meandering around the square footage, and this goes on for the allotted runtime. “Mansplained” rounds out the cast with an experienced bunch typecasting themselves as various media talking heads, mostly men in newscasters, vloggers, etc., roles, with Clint Beaver (“Woods Witch”), Erica Dyer (“Macabre Mountain”), Brandon Farmer (“Amityville Apocalypse”), Francis Erdman (“Yule Log”), Paul Bradford (“Amityville Karen”), Rudy Ledbetter (“Night of the Tommyknockers”), and Jeffrey Wolf (“Motorboat”) with Lindy Hartsfield and Erin Hickman providing the telephone voice and physical presence of Michelle in a mixed up of associations with Sara.
To be honest, “Mansplained” is a slog which is more Polanski-lite than Polanski-esque. The channeled madness Sara displays only nibbles the bait of being in the deluge of mansplaining by what is, essentially, the same person in her eyes and even the titular mansplaining comes off slightly feeble, never pushing the condescending boundaries of Sara’s limits and is more repetitive nonsense than patronizing prodding. Without Sara reacting or trying to get a word in edge wise against Evan Jacob’s motor-mouthing salvo, a one-sided approach to a two-person dynamic renders the madness useless and impotent, especially when there are no other devices to support it. Only in the very end does sanity crack open for us to peer into Sara’s disturb nature but even that moment of clarity has its legs cut out from under it, erasing the acrid accumulation of Sara’s stoically murderous, pent-up rage from the past hour in a quickly summed up way of an unexpected twist-like ending. The periodic splice-ins of news reporters, vloggers, podcasters, and the like plant seeds of the philosophical sense around objective and subjective views, posing questions and raising awareness as if speaking to the audience watching the movie rather than to drive the characters in the story. What Jacobs set out to accomplish was woman empowerment over condescending men in an enough-is-enough, kill-the-man way but what results is more the opposite with the heroine cracking under the bombardment of man’s sexist spew, succumbing to a catatonic and deranged state as she’s unable to handle the pressure.
Produced by Ron Bonk, it comes to surprised that the home video rights would fall under Bonk’s SRS Cinema, a safe haven distributor for DIY indies. The DVD is a MPEG2 encoded, standard definition, dual-layered DVD9, plenty of format space for adequate compression outcome as the bitrate maintains an average of 7.7Mbps. Yet, the not as sharp quality stems from commercial grade video equipment that’s jittery, possible motion blur with the handheld and compounded by the slow-motion frame rate for stylistic effect and doesn’t produce finer details in the electronics’ finite capabilities. Aside from some flashbacks and inner thoughts denoted by black and white imagery, “Mansplained” stays the natural color course without any strategic lighting to jazz up the appeal. The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 mono has no complains inside a one location set with no vigorous action. Overlaid telephone and podcast conversation audio, dripping/leak soundbites, and the brooding, discordant string soundtrack clearly come through with in-frame recording being very satisfactory, like ASMR satisfactory, in the minor, around-the-apartment hubbub as well as the dialogue albeit the audibly innate elbowroom echo. There are no subtitles available. Special features include a feature audio commentary with Evan Jacobs going into the genesis of the idea and his explanation for his methods and style choices, a 22-minute making-of featuring interviews with Evan Jacobs, Angelique Flores, and Lindy Hartsfield with crew including cinematographer Mike Hartsfield, “Mansplained” rehearsals that’s chiefly a PJ’ed Evan Jones acting alone in his residence, and the trailer. The standard DVD Amaray case carries no ancillary material with the disc that has the same disc art as the DVD front cover, photoshopped with a maniacal Evan Jacob’s face grinning ear-to-ear between the opening of a chained lock door. The feature has a runtime of 74 minutes, comes not rated, and the SRS DVD has a region free playback. Too much ambiguity on the table and not enough production value trumps the underlying expression as we actually need to be “Mansplained” to fully understand the endgame.
It's Bloggin Evil! 