A few reviews

[Zaharoff]

Criminal Lovers - 1999 - 6/10
AKA - Les Amants Criminels



Another French film of young love.
Pair of high school teens commit a grisly murder, then go on the run.
Fleeing into the forest, they break into an isolated cabin.
The woodsman returns, overpowers both, and drags them into a deranged version of Hansel and Gretel.
Starvation and force feeding commences, since the man prefers girls rail thin and boys plump and soft.
Flashbacks of school days alternate with soapy water, bondage and escalating violations.
Frightening film by François Ozon never flinches from the brutality the teens dispense, yet includes scenes that remind viewers that the pair are, in many ways, barely out of childhood.
Not for the squeamish.

[waffles]

Quote Originally Posted by Zaharoff

The Devil’s Hand - 1961 - 4/10 Guy keeps having nightmare of leggy blonde flouncing around in sheer nightgown in clouds. By chance (ha!) he walks into a doll shop and sees a doll that looks just like that blonde! The shopkeeper says it belongs to Bianca, and the guy can deliver it if he wants. Curvy Bianca, still wearing sheer fabric, greets him at the door then flows against our man. Before he can say he’s got a mousy girlfriend, his mind goes soft and his trousers go stiff. For devotees of the great devil god, Gamba, this is a must! Anyone else, this is crap - see through crap - though it is fun for about an hour.

This sounds like a Skinemax soft-core adaptation of Dream of a Manikin.

[Zaharoff]

The Green Archer - 1940 - 6/10

Fairly early Columbia serial. Younger brother is convicted of crime and sent to the slammer.
Meanwhile, the older brother, the cunning, sly one, inherits large manor home from where he spins his web of crime.
The huge estate has subterranean tunnels, trap doors, secret rooms, intercom, giant killer dogs (Great Danes), a car elevator (with full time elevator operator), even an underground garage!
The villainous brother masterminds a platoon of thugs and robbers. Local police are hapless.
Squared off against evil doers is the masked ghost of the house - the Green Archer!
And an insurance agent named Spike!
Much of this serial is ridiculous and awful in a delightful way.
The crime lord is a preening fool. He struts, gloats, brags about his big ole brain, then wails like Baby Huey when he loses a round. Fortunately, his feeble brained flunkies more often than not bail him out.



Female characters squeak when startled and stand still during fistfights, watching or wringing their hands. One memorable scene, she keeps straightening her hair while Spike gets his ass kicked. Guess it was windy.
The Green Archer communicates by shooting arrows with notes into stuffed furniture. I started wondering if he did re-upholstery work during his day job.
Quality of chapter cliffhangers? This serial has more cheats than a trailer park.
Caution - Children in 1940 were less shielded than those of today, as this serial is filled with killings.

[Zaharoff]

The Red Queen - 2015 - 6/10



Splashy, lavish drama of Soviet fashion models through the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras.
Focus is on the striking Regina Kolesnikova, premier model of the Soviet house.
Haunted by her past, she drinks, abuses drugs, falls into bleak despair, bordering on madness.
Most of the other models around her are equally messed up. Soap opera territory.
Heavy handed melodrama boasts wildly over the top acting.

Real life glamour queen Regina Zbarska, the quintessential Soviet runway model of the 50s and 60s, was internationally famous. Whispers persist she was also a secret KGB operative. If so, she had access to Western designers, politicians, ambassadors. Everyone. KGB officials have neither confirmed, nor denied those rumors.



Difficult to assess this production, which I enjoyed beginning to finish (I am a long Vogue subscriber).
As noted, the acting is broad to the point of histrionics.
Since I had seen many of the actors in other Russian movies, I wanted to blame inept directing.
On the other hand, this could well be camp homage to Douglas Sirk’s florid excesses.
Set designs are saturated Technicolor, evocative of overripe MGM musicals (there are musical numbers in Red Queen, as well). After so many grayish looking US and Euro shows, this dazzles by comparison.
The studio press release also promised an exaggerated telling of Regina Zbarska which this certainly is.

[Zaharoff]

Crimson Peak - 2015 - 5/10



Another discouraging step in Guillermo Del Toro’s decline.
Breathtaking set design, top tier actors, lavish, symbolic costumes.
All for naught in moralistic ghost story, that would have been quaint and corny 100 years ago.
Impoverished English baronet woos rich American heiress.
He whisks her away from gorgeous full colour hues of New York to somber greys of remote England.
The mansion, while beautiful, is cracked, rotting and has a roof hole possibly twenty meters wide.
Snow - leaves - rain falls from outside to the lowest basement.
Any normal human would have put a tarp over the opening at the very least!
The plot - if you are so charitable - is a blend of House Of Usher, Angels & Insects, Notorious.
CGI ghosties are laughably un-scarey. As so often with DelToro, bug infestation overload.
Sad to see so much money and talent squandered on an inferior live action cartoon.

[Zaharoff]

Deep Crimson - 1996 - 7/10
AKA - Profundo Carmesí



Mexican retelling of the “Lonely Hearts Killers.” *
Low level con man romances widows and spinsters. Steals money, jewels, silver, then slips away.
Most are too embarrassed to report him, so he operates for years.
Until he encounters the large, needy woman. They link up, cruise Sonora, turn murderous.
Film really captures the abandoned wastelands of the Mexican scrub.
The pair share a sexual passion, exclusive and claustrophobic.
Faithful retelling, though the ending is off.

* Lonely Hearts Killers: Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Fernandez_and_Martha_Beck

[Zaharoff]

Crimson Rivers - 2000 - 6/10
AKA - Les Rivières Pourpres



Major - major - major disappointment this. True, I scored this a 6, yet I would have notched it an 8 as would have other viewers.
Paris commissioner (Jean Reno) sent to remote site in Alps after a nude body is found.
The victim had suffered ritual torture, hands and eyes removed, then killed slowly.
The trail leads to a posh, extremely exclusive university.
Meanwhile, another cop (Vincent Cassel) investigates a tomb desecration hundreds of kilometers distant.
The trail likewise leads to the university.
The look is Neo-Noir, the plot is creepy and suspenseful, punctuated with intense action.
Location filming is breathtaking. This is a fabulous looking film.
Unfortunately . . . there is no “why.”
A truly enjoyable movie, marred by a rushed, inexplicable conclusion.
According to an interview with a frustrated Cassel, he did not understand the end either.
Note - The director chose to cut all the explanatory sequences because they were “boring."
This could have been a great film.
Recommended - with that warning.

[Druidic]

Another discouraging step in Guillermo Del Toro’s decline.--Zaharoff

Precisely why I have no enthusiasm for a Del Toro version of ATMOM. As I said, times before, it's already been filmed at least a half-dozen times with results varying from great to meh. Personally, I liked Prometheus, even if the last 30 minutes deteriorated into comic book stuff.

Lovecraft's novella was a powerful poetic expression of the Great White Space and the wonder, terror and inhuman beauty it evokes. (By "inhuman beauty," I simply mean beauty hostile or indifferent to human life.) The ambiguity of the ending could never be caught on film.

[Zaharoff]

Love And Crime - 1969 - 6/10
AKA - Meiji · Taishô · Shôwa: Ryôki onna hanzai-shi



Japanese anthology compilation, heavy on sex and violence.
Predatory females work their assets for gain or revenge, based on actual individuals.
Sada Abe would be the most famous, or infamous, for the marathon bout of coitus climaxing in strangulation and castration.
Oden was the last female beheaded in Japan, and Toyokaku was a woman who murdered her way to her own inn.
Fast paced little film with ample nudity, killings, and corpses.
Knowing that these were real people may increase appreciation.
Male viewers might wish to avert their gaze when scissors appear.

[Zaharoff]

The Sense Of An Ending - 2017 - 6/10



Aging man receives official notice of an inheritance.
A ghost from his past bequeathes a diary from an even older ghost, a childhood friend.
Flashbacks unroll memories, some accurate, others filtered.
Story is much the unraveling of the riddle.
Perceived betrayal worms through the man’s assumptions and impulses.
Despite twists and surprises, despite a strong cast, the ending left me flat.
It was like the director opened up the “aha” door, then kicked it closed abruptly.