Naples Never Dies... It Shoots! (2012) User Reviews

Deviancy abound

[znowhite01 · 7/10 · 10 July 2012]

Spartaco Castelluci's international crime thriller contains the usual complacent deviants and human garbage we've come to celebrate from Depth Charge Productions. Starting with a brutal assassination in a group therapy session, the action soon relocates to Italia where the ever- running DC themes of paint addiction, human livestock trading and traditional drug smuggling begin to whirlwind out of control. Meanwhile, a snitch musician gets mixed up with a shady lawyer and homosexual closeted government agents over a massive cartel shipment. Apparently, a drug runner Cornell Parker is under FBI scrutiny after a series of brutal killings and kidnappings. Faceless hero Gus Benedict returns to make things right, or sulk in anger, depending on his mood and location to any given on screen scumbag looking to eliminate him. Or something like that. The on screen directions to a website for additional plot information led me to a broken link.

There's much more variety in cast and depravity than the movie's countless prequels, and with a healthy collection of cameos from excellent unknowns. The whole affair seems more epic and focused. Stielstra is back playing a plethora of scum, his most repugnant being the permed half-breed Parker. Parker drives the movie's sordidness and hatred to its comical peak but ultimately fizzles up in a series of shootouts. It makes Buster Pie's heroin-addicted saxophonist seem relatively stable. More characters come and go to be promptly executed before receiving ethnic insults or abuse. Standouts include Michael Fredianelli as Isaac Abrahams, a harmless Jewish attorney forced to associate with whiny musicians and narcotics smuggling. His hideous sideburns, cowboy boots and thrift store jackets--not to mention Fredianelli's bloated countenance--make for a pathetic presentation of authority. But it's that rare character in the film we root for and sympathize with. Until he's eaten by Mexicans. Actor Mike Malloy gives the other great supporting performance as a federal agent confined to an abandoned building with more antiquated surveillance and gadgetry than Jigsaw's basement. He's inexplicitly dubbed for a majority of the film, but it's his smarmy Bruce Dern delivery and ambiguous sexuality that really shock the audience and supplies a welcomed 70s crime throwback to the proceedings. Unfortunately, his character's fate remains unexplained through the end of the movie.

The film definitely has its assets, despite its amateurish shortcomings. The most impressive aspect of the narrative being the spot-on social commentary regarding pop culture and obesity in America, two motifs I'm pleased Stielstra has not yet abandoned. Other jabs at our decaying modern civilization include disgusting pop videos, a reoccurring news bulletin regarding an infant on a rampage, and a nauseating montage of bulbous ATV drivers. Not very subtle, but an appropriate commentary nonetheless. Sadly, the film's annoying medievalists were not mowed down by a nearby explosion.

Technically speaking, this is the most advanced and visually impressive of the DC productions. Some shots are very cleverly setup and executed, such as an extreme telephoto long take of a confrontation at the train tracks pre-firefight, and a sweeping pan across the Mexican border. Lighting is also used more effectively and sparingly, the best example being a moody showdown between Buster and Bud that ends in morbid David Lynchian fashion and weirdness. As per par for the course, the soundtrack rarely disappoints with enough stingers and drones to make any Bill Lustig fanatic take note—especially when they accompany a flaming miniature car explosion. The suspenseful compositions, such as Gus's themes, appropriately build tension and rarely falter. The remainder of the songs contain enough funk and groove to make the on screen atrocities more palatable and enjoyable.

The general look and feel of the movie still feels amateurish. A big part of the blame can be placed on all the worthless one-chip cameras and a lack of proper sound equipment, but there's still room for improvement in areas that don't require any budget or a big crew. Some more controlled camera-work would have helped, mostly in the countless montages that consist of sloppy hand-held pans, zooms and tilts. Also, too many scenes are obviously stitched together from numerous locations and it shows: the worst offenders being two brief action sequences.

Narrative-wise, the story is a lot easier to follow this time around, but there's still a large amount of talky exposition, incessant name dropping and elongated dialog scenes. More editing would have helped, even at the expense of creating plot holes. Also, the entire cast seems to fall into two camps, and since the main parts are acted so well, it just makes the inexperienced, weaker performers that much easier to spot.

Overall, the film delivers on the expected laughs and bloodshed despite its limitations. Eternally quotable lines such as, "Suck my buttocks," have already penetrated the everyday dialog of this viewer, and many gags will burn out the rewind button on my remote. Recommended, if you can focus on the main characters and ignore the plot confusion and visual patchwork.

Wonderfully Demented.

[Pycal · 7/10 · 28 March 2012]

NAPLES NEVER DIES... IT SHOOTS! is the much awaited follow up to director Aaron Stielstra's 2008 crime-comedy classic SEE NAPLES... THEN DIE. While the film is a massive achievement for Stielstra, I'm still on the fence about whether or not the film surpasses the earlier hit. The characterizations in the new flick are wonderful and while Stielstra doesn't quite transform like Lon Chaney, each of the characters are unique enough and easier to distinguish. This is certainly an improvement over the original which felt like Stielstra was playing multiple roles more for lack of budget. Here you can't imagine the characters played by anyone else. However, what makes this film perhaps stand out less over the original is the weirdness factor and overall convolutedness. The pacing is also off in some spots with a few scenes dragging on for more than they should. However the film is still funny (albeit less quotable than the first) and makes fun of it's own short comings. This is no doubt a funny film and the weirdness adds to that somewhat, but most of the comedy bits just don't stand out as being quite as quotable or memorable as some moments in the first film. Even so, the film succeeds on some level just by being so overly demented and deranged. Highlights include a hilarious sex sequence (complete with fake buttocks), a bevy of shootouts (one of the most memorable featuring a librarian dressed up as a clown), a few musical numbers performed by one of the most stereotypical Jewish characters ever committed to film, and a fantastic miniature car explosion that would make Antonio Margheriti proud. The film is also notable for exhuming a rare, long lost cartoon clip said to be produced by a Danish company and animated in Rhode Island with voice characterizations recorded in Ramirez Hills, AZ.

If anything, the film is impressive for it's large scope (with locations spanning the US and Italia) and seemingly improved production values. Camera work improves a bit and even the overall film quality looks better. All in all this film is a great achievement for Stielstra and director Spartaco Castelluci alike. I look forward to what the Weisensteinbaum Bros., Castelluci Enterprises, and Depth Charge Productions release next.

True Punk Rock Cinema

[jkelp90 · 9/10 · 10 July 2012]

True punk rock cinema has never been more blistering or bloated with schizophrenic meanings than writer-director Aaron Stielstra's latest movie. It's so controversial, he even adopted a pseudonym, Spartaco Castelluci, to escape the protest groups at its various screenings.

Not unlike early John Waters offering, here the characters take precedent over a melodramatic plot that is almost impossible to follow. Yet with such a colorful cast, and the film's moments of sheer hilarity, the only people probably complaining are the self-important hipsters. If you demand humorless product, or applaud banal, kitschy, or pre-meditated attempts at "culty" affirmation, this movie will not be your plate of David Lynch or Richard Linklater goopy, animated philosophy. This is not even a movie the Warhol/Paul Morrisey crowd would have endorsed, as the amount of anger on screen seems to be channeled into some form of anti-audience presentation only GG Allin and the Murder Junkies would understand.

Definitely a step up professionally for Stielstra, it's a movie with outstanding music, clever editing, extreme and exciting action, and desperate characters. On a sanity level, it's obvious the narrative style and plotting are de-evolving into something punk and subversive. One hopes Stielstra's next movie can still be abrasive, yet welcome paying audiences inside (or outside, in case the film is projected on the sides of boxcars) to witness its unique genius.

An Unapologetic Rhapsody in Dementia

[HughBennie-777 · 7 July 2012]

NAPLES NEVER DIES…IT SHOOTS! "Unapologetic, brain-damaged hysteria" would adequately describe this new crime-comedy from the writer-director Aaron Stielstra. To call it post-modern would grant it bogus intellectual stature, to call it indie or punk lumps it in with more noisy, humorless, and pretentious cinema—though it is noisy. There is no real story worth following, nor are there answers to any questions. Stielstra is determined to ignore narrative coherency, which he announces at the beginning of the movie in a title card, and move right on with the characters. Luckily, the acting in the film is excellent and this rescues the movie from being just a dysfunctional shout-fest, as evidenced in earlier Stielstra films.

A disfigured Gus Benedict (Aaron Stielstra), returns from the first film, a victim of a botched suicide attempt. His mission is to wipe out the crime community of a hick town in the American southwest. We don't know why, and Benedict's "Exterminator"-style disposal of the bad guys seems more a familiar habit than any symptom of rage. Meanwhile, a corrupt FBI agent (Mike Malloy) and a white supremacist group Anal Pride (the movies most hysterical concoction)conspire to carry out as many of the script's double-crossings as they can before Benedict reduces them all to piles of bloody pulp. Enough plot.

What should satisfy B-movie aficionados and lovers of John Waters and Paul Morrisey is the sordid subject matter and damaged people on screen. For fans of powerhouse action-thrillers of the 70s and 80s (directors like James Glickenhaus, John Frankenheimer at his worst, or black-action masters like Arthur Marks, Ossie Davis, Barry Shear, plus the comedy of Rudy Ray Moore), there is the irreverent crime-movie action. For all its technical flaws (and there are many) and lapses into buggy-eyed, no-mans-land indulgences, the film does have a vision. And though it is apt to lose audiences over its manic style, it's no less punishing or manipulative than an Oliver Stone movie bloated with its own self-importance.

Also noteworthy is the exceptional jazz-funk score that wears its influences of Herbie Hancock, the DeAngelis Brothers, and Lalo Schifrin on its sleeve while delivering some unique grooves and surprising synthesizer compositions. Stielstra has scored many excellent soundtracks in the past decade, from westerns, like "The Scarlet Worm", to controversial horror such as Michael Fredianelli's shocking "The Minstrel Killer". But here the music possesses more maturity and imagination. Not to mention, subterranean melodies and squishy sea- beast cacophony.

Lastly, without gushing too much about a movie that has received a criminally small amount of screen-time--this before being banned in Poland and the Arctic Circle--one must applaud the supporting cast and their dynamic performances. For the amount of execrable bad acting visible in both Hollywood blockbusters and popular television these days, its refreshing to see such a spirited ensemble both embody the dementia in the script and characters, and suffer such awful deaths with little dignity.

See Naples...

[Samoan Bob · 23 July 2012]

NAPLES NEVER DIES follows the intersecting stories of a Chet Baker-like Jazz musician named B. Buster Pie (who, despite his all-American moniker, is a self-hating pharmaceutical addict), a half-black, half-gay drug lord named Cornell Parker (whose love of mindless violence is only matched by his love of abnormal, globular-bottomed sex), and an avenging angel named Gus Benedict (returning from the original Naples film, but with his face covered by a ski mask after the original film's star died and Stielstra opted to play the role himself).

Along the way, we meet a discount buffet-table's worth of unique characters, locations, events, cinematic styles and film quality, oftentimes within one scene. I'm not sure if the use of divergent film stocks was an homage to Oliver Stone or the result of the general incompetence of Stielstra's film crew, but it contributes to the film's dangerous, uneasy world where one minute you might be sitting down peacefully at a self-help meeting, and the next minute you might be in a one-chip video, getting a clip's worth of bullets shot into your lungs and pelvis.

Unfortunately, many of the characters don't get a chance to fully resonate. This is not to say that B. Buster Pie and Cornell Parker are lesser creations. Far from it. But it's somewhat difficult to follow Pie's arc of addiction and misogyny, or to fully understand Parker's conflicted identity issues demonstrated in his bisexual predilection--or his decision to undergo race re-assignment surgery. Compounding the issue are some questionable uses of screen-time, in Pie's case, an initially powerful but eventually overlong, unbroken master shot of him begging for a hit of paint, and in Parker's case, a couple of lengthy scenes involving his almost incapacitated mother stumbling around while the phone rings. The film overcomes this handicap with two powerfully shot and acted demises for each character. I won't spoil them here, but Stielstra has the ability to draw blood from a stone and tears from an audience for two despicable louts whose deaths they would cheer in any other film. Gus Benedict, as the film's surrogate protagonist, is reduced to a grim specter of death, not unlike The Shape in the original "Halloween".

Of course, the film has plenty of other fascinating characters, including the leader of a white supremacist group known as Anal Pride, a corrupt FBI agent, a doomed library worker dressed as a clown, a corrupt lawyer brilliantly played by deviant filmmaker and registered sex offender Michael Fredianelli, and Peanut, a Chicano, bicycle shorts-wearing cowboy whose very presence causes the film's editing to loop itself into a miasma of smash-zooms. This, just so the movie can make sure it's actually seeing what it thinks it's seeing.

Stielstra's film also boasts a good chunk of archival footage of public domain commercials, newscasts, children's cartoons, and scatological nature footage that seems to appear at random intervals throughout. Whether these were spliced into this negative on accident is still undetermined, but they contribute to the film's howling disenfranchisement with modern American culture.

As a whole, NAPLES NEVER DIES seems less an homage to European crime films (as the title would suggest), and more a madman's fever dream about the illicit underbelly of Arizona. Even in this patchwork quilt of a cut, NAPLES NEVER DIES is a film drunk on the possibilities of cinema. Literally. It wakes up and and messes itself on the couch of standard narrative storytelling.

In other words, it's a wake-up call from the drunk tank of motion pictures. Will you accept the charges? A million stars.