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Fantasia 15 - The Rest of the Story
Aug. 5th, 2011 04:41 pmWas there even breakfast on Saturday? Was there lunch? Does it matter? We're here to talk about movies, and today was a big big day for movies. Five movies in fact, back to back. Fortunately my firm butt was up to the task.
Gantz: Perfect Answer dir. Shinsuke Sato - The awesomness gets turned up to eleven here! The aliens are trying to fight back and find the location of Gantz and destroy him. There is a smaller black sphere wit an agenda of its own. More players are recruited, alliances are tested, and old faces return! The pathos and drama and angst and action are much improved over the first film, and it really benefits seeing the two films in proximity (or back to back as you could on Saturday.) There are some things that don't make sense, but the intensity of the film carries you along. It's a fun, fun, ride. 5/5 spheres.
Stake Land: dir. Jim Mickie - A plague of vampires sweeps the world, plunging it into Chaos. A vampire slayer and his assistant travel the U.S. heading for New Eden, dodging blood suckers and Aryan supremacist gangs along the way. One of the few straight up horror films we saw. It was gritty and bleak like the Road, or Zombieland with no jokes. The vampires were more like feral monsters or fast zombies. It wasn't supremely original, but it did have a few surprises, and the slow relentless burn of living in a post-apocalyptic world was unsettling. 4/5 stakes
Karate Robo Zaborgar: dir. Noboru Iguchi - Based on a 1974 Japanese TV show of the same name, brought to life by the twisted director of Mutant Girl Squad and Machine Girl. For a filmmaker with such a violent pedigree, KRZ was mostly free of blood and gore, but had plenty of camp and absurdity. Noboru flew out to Montreal to introduce the film and do a Q&A afterward. Extreme care was taken to remain faithful to the original show, and even though I hadn't seen the original, I had a ball watching it. 3/5 robot motorcycles
The FP: dir Brandon and Jason Trost - Awwwwwww shit! This utterly off the hook send up of 80's movies has to be seen to be believed. In an undefined time and place, in a traler down called Frazier Park (the FP) rival gangs do battle... on the Beat Beat Revelation video game. There's tons of techno, shoulder pads and hair spray, and ludicrous wigger dialog played very seriously, for reals. The directors were there to introduce the film and do Q&A and later had an after party where you could challenge the star to Dance Dance... I mean, Beat Beat Revelation. An excellent group movie that was made for a festival like Fantasia. There WILL be a viewing. You'll be 1-8-7ed. For reals. 5/5 ducks
Morituris: dir. Raffaele Picchio - This should have been a nice Italian zombie movie. Lord knows that a lot of good horror films have come out of Italy. This is not one of them. I wanted to see a bunch of people running around the woods, trying to defend themselves from gladiator zombies. What I got was a little over half a film of three guys driving two girls to the woods to abuse and rape them. In nice, loving, detail. I did not sign on for this. If you are watching a zombie movie and you don't see zombies till about 60% of the way in? You're doing it wrong. There was no humor, no cunning dialog. Just abuse and abuse and more icky abuse. The zombie's weren't spectacular, and when the indiscriminate killing started, they were greeting with relief that the movie would be over soon. I can't think of one redeeming thing about this movie. Amanda and I ranted about it long after we left. 0/5 gladiators
Blessed sleep came followed by one more movie.
Bangkok Knockout: dir. Panna Rittikrai - This will be short and sweet. The fight scenes and stunts were amazing and got many cheers. The plot and acting got many jeers. I've seen enough martial art flicks to know that you need some kind of story OR decent acting to hold them together. Or a lot of pretty. There was a bit of pretty, a bit of story, and atrocious acting. For all that, its worth watching to see some very slick moves. This is a movie made to showcase the skills of the stunt team. It certainly delivers that. 3/5 flying knees
That sums up Fantasia this year. The trip back was uneventful, the company was great, and once again I find myself counting the days until I can come back and Do It Big. All over again.
Gantz: Perfect Answer dir. Shinsuke Sato - The awesomness gets turned up to eleven here! The aliens are trying to fight back and find the location of Gantz and destroy him. There is a smaller black sphere wit an agenda of its own. More players are recruited, alliances are tested, and old faces return! The pathos and drama and angst and action are much improved over the first film, and it really benefits seeing the two films in proximity (or back to back as you could on Saturday.) There are some things that don't make sense, but the intensity of the film carries you along. It's a fun, fun, ride. 5/5 spheres.
Stake Land: dir. Jim Mickie - A plague of vampires sweeps the world, plunging it into Chaos. A vampire slayer and his assistant travel the U.S. heading for New Eden, dodging blood suckers and Aryan supremacist gangs along the way. One of the few straight up horror films we saw. It was gritty and bleak like the Road, or Zombieland with no jokes. The vampires were more like feral monsters or fast zombies. It wasn't supremely original, but it did have a few surprises, and the slow relentless burn of living in a post-apocalyptic world was unsettling. 4/5 stakes
Karate Robo Zaborgar: dir. Noboru Iguchi - Based on a 1974 Japanese TV show of the same name, brought to life by the twisted director of Mutant Girl Squad and Machine Girl. For a filmmaker with such a violent pedigree, KRZ was mostly free of blood and gore, but had plenty of camp and absurdity. Noboru flew out to Montreal to introduce the film and do a Q&A afterward. Extreme care was taken to remain faithful to the original show, and even though I hadn't seen the original, I had a ball watching it. 3/5 robot motorcycles
The FP: dir Brandon and Jason Trost - Awwwwwww shit! This utterly off the hook send up of 80's movies has to be seen to be believed. In an undefined time and place, in a traler down called Frazier Park (the FP) rival gangs do battle... on the Beat Beat Revelation video game. There's tons of techno, shoulder pads and hair spray, and ludicrous wigger dialog played very seriously, for reals. The directors were there to introduce the film and do Q&A and later had an after party where you could challenge the star to Dance Dance... I mean, Beat Beat Revelation. An excellent group movie that was made for a festival like Fantasia. There WILL be a viewing. You'll be 1-8-7ed. For reals. 5/5 ducks
Morituris: dir. Raffaele Picchio - This should have been a nice Italian zombie movie. Lord knows that a lot of good horror films have come out of Italy. This is not one of them. I wanted to see a bunch of people running around the woods, trying to defend themselves from gladiator zombies. What I got was a little over half a film of three guys driving two girls to the woods to abuse and rape them. In nice, loving, detail. I did not sign on for this. If you are watching a zombie movie and you don't see zombies till about 60% of the way in? You're doing it wrong. There was no humor, no cunning dialog. Just abuse and abuse and more icky abuse. The zombie's weren't spectacular, and when the indiscriminate killing started, they were greeting with relief that the movie would be over soon. I can't think of one redeeming thing about this movie. Amanda and I ranted about it long after we left. 0/5 gladiators
Blessed sleep came followed by one more movie.
Bangkok Knockout: dir. Panna Rittikrai - This will be short and sweet. The fight scenes and stunts were amazing and got many cheers. The plot and acting got many jeers. I've seen enough martial art flicks to know that you need some kind of story OR decent acting to hold them together. Or a lot of pretty. There was a bit of pretty, a bit of story, and atrocious acting. For all that, its worth watching to see some very slick moves. This is a movie made to showcase the skills of the stunt team. It certainly delivers that. 3/5 flying knees
That sums up Fantasia this year. The trip back was uneventful, the company was great, and once again I find myself counting the days until I can come back and Do It Big. All over again.
