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Romancing in Thin Air

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Celebrity romances are basically modern fairy tales, swapping out castles for press junkets, princes for movie stars and happily ever after for an obligatory producer’s credit. Romancing in Thin Air (2012) plays in the same space at Notting Hill , where fame is a roadblock to true love onscreen and off. It’s all very meta. And director Johnnie To takes things a step further with a movie within a movie third act that nudges his characters toward a make or break reunion. After being dumped at the altar, mononymous superstar Michael (Louis Koo) flees to a secluded mountain resort hoping to escape inside a bottle. But Sue (Sammi Cheng) puts him to work as a replacement for her missing husband who disappeared in the nearby woods seven years earlier. Their meet-cute relationship continues along predictable lines, even after Michael discovers she’s a founding member of his fan club. But the ghost of her husband – and his celebrity obligations - keep their love affair from truly blossomi...
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The Ugly

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Even in 1997, cinematic serial killers were a dime a dozen. And while the influence of S ilence of the Lambs looms large over director Scott Reynold’s The Ugly - introducing another caged psychotic whose methods and motivation are put under the microscope by an ambitious psychiatrist - the film makes a concerted effort to put a new twist on the story using clever camera tricks and a dislocated narrative that bends reality…and expectations. Staging her interview in a stylized asylum, Dr. Karen Schumaker (Rebecca Hobbs) hopes to get something out of killer Simon Cartwright (Paolo Rotondo) that his own doctor hasn’t managed to do in six years. Simon’s abusive childhood and learning disability seem like obvious red flags, but his scarred self-image and mysterious voices pile one causality atop another. And after Karen starts seeing her patient popping up in her weakened subconscious, there doesn’t seem to be anyeasy explanation for his madness. Full of consciously inventive camerawor...
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Saurians / Colony Mutation / The Paranormal

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Blessed be the tastemakers! All due respect to those leaning on Letterboxd, but it’s boutique physical media companies like Visual Vengeance that are really introducing fans to films they might have otherwise overlooked. And in the case of their latest trio of titles, films even their creators never expected to debut in such extravagant special editions. Tapping into that specific strain of low-budget ambition, Saurians (1994) has the kind of earnestness that’s too hard to fake. Filmmaker Mark Polonia shoots for Jurassic Park -level action using a blend of stop motion, hand puppets and oversize models...all on Super 8. But it’s the awkward dubbing, sleepy acting and hammy dialogue that will be most appealing to fans of homemade cinema. Saurians is cringey in the best possible way, but Polonia stays fully committed to the idea he’s making something special. And, in that respect, he succeeds. Colony Mutation (1988) lifts its inspiration from the work of David Cronenberg, whos...
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The Crawling Hand / The Slime People

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Fans of ’50 and ‘60s sci-fi monster movies are a dying breed. In the CGI age, does anyone have patience for rubber suits, cosmic rays and scenes filmed in rented trailers passing themselves off as mission control? I’m willing to bet there are a few of us left tracking down unseen gems like The Crawling Hand and The Slime People now out on a remastered Blu-ray double-feature courtesy of VCI Entertainment. It looks like a bargain bin special, but the 4K scans from the original negative say otherwise. In The Crawling Hand (1963), the severed arm of an infected astronaut washes up on a California beach where the microorganisms inside infect an ambitious college student. Meanwhile, the hand itself skitters away from a pair of scientists and the local sheriff (Alan “Skipper” Hale, Jr.) as they attempt to solve a string of mysterious strangulations. Well, duh! Taking a fairly serious approach to the low-budget material, director Herbert L. Strock was no stranger to the teenage horror m...
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Cutter's Way

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The catchphrase for ‘70s cinema was ambiguity . Not that David Lynch nonsense that leaves every scene open to interpretation, but the sort of morally murky, post-Watergate cynicism where the answers matter less than the questions they leave behind. Cutter’s Way was actually released in 1981, but it’s soaked in the neo-noir of Chinatown , the bleach-blond decay of Shampoo and the lazy disillusionment of Five Easy Pieces . So much so that when director Ivan Passer wrings it out to dry, the movie leaves its audience just as spiritually empty. Richard Bone (Jeff Bridges) is a layabout lothario who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. After witnessing a murder, he casually identifies the suspect as one of the Santa Barbara elite, a man above reproach and, perhaps, above the law. Bone is happy to leave well enough alone, but his friend, Alex Cutter (John Heard), a disfigured and disillusioned Vietnam vet, sees an opportunity to dispense justice and make some money at th...
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Confessions of a Police Captain

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Director Damiano Damiani has built a career on corruption. Not the obvious, everyday swindlers, but the insidious variety that seeps into government institutions and can’t be removed without killing the host. In 1971’s Confessions of a Police Captain, he reunites with Franco Nero and Martin Balsam in a dissection of the Italian justice system, staging a chess match in which the rules were fixed before the game began. Captain Bonavia (Balsam) is the experienced cop who understands there is more than one way to get your man. District Attorney Traini (Nero) is his naïve counterpart, shocked at the suggestion of city officials working with mafiosos to line both their pockets. They approach the same case from different angles as the pressure to take down a dirty land developer ruffles feathers in the underworld and the judicial bench. The chess match metaphor is particularly relevant to Bonavia and Traini’s relationship. In a rare leading role, Balsam excels as the jaded mentor who has...
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Soldier

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Kurt Russell’s name doesn’t pop up when it comes to action heroes, yet his career is littered with iconic performance in the genre: Escape from New York, Big Trouble in Little China, Tango & Cash, Stargate, Breakdown and about a half dozen others on the fringes. But 1998’s Soldier might be his most on-the-nose attempt hang with Stallone and Schwarzenegger, a ‘80s throwback full of weaponry, explosions and enough macho posturing to embarrass a Greek god. Raised on warfare from birth, Sgt. Todd (Russell) and his corps of space soldiers are deemed “outdated” after a new program introduces genetically engineered commandos who can kick ass more cost effectively. Literally thrown out with the trash, Todd lands on a waste disposal planet populated with displaced colonists who find his demeanor at odds with their peaceful existence. But when more space baddies arrive to cause trouble, he’s the only things standing between them and complete destruction. Written by David Webb Peoples (...
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