Movieline Online

Hong Kong humor isn’t always appropriate for mixed company. Even the initiated have to admit its full of homophobia, crude sexual innuendo and outdated pratfalls. But then again, so was every installment of Police Academy . And at least T he Haunted Cop Shop (1987) adds ghosts, vampires and a quickie-mart manager who’s also a master of kung fu! Set at a rural police station used as a Japanese after-hours club during the occupation, the current staff unwittingly releases General Issei – now a bloodthirsty vampire - from the spirit world. As he makes the rounds turning victims into his undead slaves, two cops and their superior look to undo the damage without becoming supernatural casualties themselves. A sort of Abbott & Costello Meet the Hungry Ghosts , this Wong Kar-wai co-written spoof happily embraces the broad comedy clichés established by Sammo Hung’s Encounters of the Spooky Kind - and even gives it a name-check. What’s most surprising is that, for all the narrative c...

Hearkening back to the Roger Corman era, when everything you needed to know about a movie was right there in the title, Frankenhooker (1990) is a creative low-budget effort from writer/director Frank Henenlotter, whose Basket Case (1982) was the best movie ever made about a Siamese twin living in a wicker basket. Both films are actually cleverer than you’d expect and share a self-deprecating sense of humor. Starring Patty Mullen, former 1987 Pet of the Year and a genuine Jersey girl, Frankenhooker begins with her dismemberment courtesy of a remote-controlled lawnmower. Racked by grief, her fiancé heads into the streets of Manhattan to collect body parts from all-too-eager prostitutes in hopes of reconstructing her. The end result, however, is a purple, pasty-faced monstrosity who escapes the lab and goes out looking for more “tricks.” There’s not a frame of Henenlotter’s film that isn’t ridiculous, offensive, stupid, or all three at once. But it’s also all in good fun. Synapse’s new...