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abirosa
Reviews
Cloverfield (2008)
If your reading this... your fly is down...
Umm. Cloverfield is scary and I got nightmares from it. No seriously, this movie freaked me out. I thought I was going sit in my comfy theater seat and have a good laugh as I watched an overblown version of the Blair Witch Project. I was wrong so wrong.
The fear this movie plays with is the fear of not knowing anything during a catastrophic situation. Something bad is happening and people are dying. You know there is a monster, you know that it is huge, but you don't know where it came from or why its attacking. Most monster/alien movies are told from the military or a scientific point of view and experts come up with way to defeat the beast. Cloverfield is about being on the ground level of a horrible event. It's about people running for their lives from things that they have know time to study or understand. There also parts that will be very reminiscent of September, 11 footage, which also plays into the formula of fear. As if the giant unknown monster wasn't enough there are some more nasty surprises in store.
Sure there's a love story involved. Also, in classic horror movie style, the main characters embark on a mission that places them in even greater personal danger than they are already in, but that's all par for the course. The frantic camera angles will make you kind of ill, but it was less annoying than the Bourne Ultimatum.
This was a great movie, the premise worked and exceed my expectations. This was what the American version of Godzilla should have been. Eat that Broderick! Unlike the Blair Witch, I would go see the is movie again and own it proudly. Will there be a sequel? While this movie can stand on its own, but I can see how they could "f" it up with a sequel. So in the meantime enjoy!
Complex World (1991)
A great movie
Once upon a time there was a place called Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel. This Heartbreak Hotel was rock bar in the Providence, Rhode Island. In 1987 the hotel had some rough times and it looked as if the doors were going to close for good. So Lupo got his bartender Jim Wolpaw who had made an Oscar nominated short film Keats and His Nightingale: A Blind Date to make a movie around the benefit concert to save the Heartbreak.
The headlining act of the concert was Providence's own The Young Adults. The Young Adults were big success in their hometown and had some local air play around 1979 with the single Complex World w/ Beer. Due to internal problems the band split. What kind of sound did the Young Adults kick out? The band lead by David Hansen (then known as Sport Fisher) produced songs that were humorous in nature, yet had the sound of honest, soulful rock 'n' roll. Songs like: Do The Heimlich, Christmas In Japan In July, and Complex World , of course, would make up the soundtrack of (you guessed it) Complex World. Side Note: the band was once sought by Lorne Michaels to be the band for "Saturday Night Live". The Young Adults only album was entitled Helping Others on the Heartbreak Hits label. And now you know the rest of the story.
Sorry, Paul Harvey moment! I found out about this movie in the early nineties. It was in one of those non-chain video stores. Mom and Pop video stores are great because sometimes they get movies that would be normally tossed to the side. During that time, I had seen Quinten Tarantino's Reservior Dogs and wanted to find more independent and cult movies. Complex World is high on my list of cult favorite movies.
Complex World is the story of Morris Brock (Stanley Matis), a man who joins a group of terrorists in order to get out from under the shadow of his dead brother. Morris isn't the ring leader in this scheme. In fact, the group is lead by Malcom (Daniel Von Bargen), who like most of the group, can't stand Morris. Well that isn't completely true, the group's weapons expert and the movie's token black Harpo (Allen Oliver) is silent for most of the film. Last, but not least Gilda (Margo Dionne) is Morris' east German love interest that has no interest in him.
The terrorists' plans are to place a bomb in the basement of the Heartbreak and then hold the people for ransom. The terrorists are themselves being manipulated by the underlings of Sen. Robert Burgess (Bob Owczarek) who son Jeff Burgess (Dan Welch) is the owner of the Heartbreak. The senator sees his son as a risk to his run for president and is willing to have him killed as an opportunity to make him a sympathetic hero. Are you still with me? Good! What no one counted on is Jeff complete unwillingness to take anything seriously.
On top of everything else, the mayor office has a motorcycle gang hired to terrorize the people of Heartbreak while officials promise to ignore the gang's actions. The gang is lead by Boris Lee played masterfully by none other than Captain Lou "Super Mario Super Show" Albino. Boris Lee is a biker with as strong sense of history and a major fan of Stonewall Jackson.
The least powerful of the Heartbreak Hotel's enemies is the Rev. Tilman Gandy Jr. I don't know if the Rev. was some kind of comic act, but I strongly doubt that he is an actual Reverened. The Rev. Gandy Jr. stands outside the Heartbreak preaching to anyone who will listen to him. The Sermon involves very a fractured retelling of Noah's Ark an some bad philistine jokes.
Complex World is not a very polished film, and if crude, dark humor isn't your cup of tea you may want to avoid. The icing on the cake is the songs of Morris Brock. Like some kind of mix between Woody Allen and Bob Dylan, Morris belts out unforgettable numbers like: Why Do We Feed the Broads, Dead Guy Song, Khruschev Went to the Zoo, and ending with the hateful anthem New Jersey. The Young Adults is comprised of toe tappers like: Kill Yourself, Meeting Girls, Summer Song, Meat Rampage, I Married a Tree, and the songs previously mentioned above. The songs alone are reason enough to see this movie once. It should also be noted that the band NRBQ has two songs they perform for the soundtrack: Me and the Boys and 12 Bar Blues. The Smithereens are the extras around the bar.
While the music plays above "clone band" the Beatlegends take a phone call from the spirit of Elvis while doing lines of coke. The members of the Beatlegends learn about the whereabouts of John Lennon's soul and the secret of life.
In the end, Complex World is movie that looks at the prospect of annihilation, laughs at it, shrugs its shoulders and walks away. If your looking for something that funny to watch, you like good jams, or you dig post Cold-War nostalgia, This is your film. Now your saying, "Abe sound great, but where do I find this wonder of cinema?" Well, on Amazon for up twenty bucks the magic and be yours to keep. A website had it for sale for a hundred, so you can pretty much see where the nice price is.
Abi' Retroactive Score for Complex world: 8.5