Tim Dodd

Girls, Drugs, and Guns. Now how about a point?

As a fan of 60’s and 70’s exploitation flicks, it really bums me out when a movie makes naked nubile beauties snorting coke, turning tricks, and blowing people’s brains out unappealing. 2004’s Greek powerhouse of style attempting to masquerade as substance, Hardcore, is just that film.
No really, kiddies, I’m just kidding. Sex, drugs, and violence are bad and shouldn’t be celebrated in film. Well, that is unless they are presented in a fun manner. Hardcore is not fun. It’s not really even that entertaining. And for the trench coat faction of you out there it’s not even very erotic. It just kind of sits there like a million other pretentious arty films that wallow in sensational topics just to get attention but offer little in story or substance.
Well, at least the chicks are hot.

Hardcore follows two teenage prostitutes in Athens, Nadia (Katerina Tsavalou) and Martha (Danae Skiadi), who fall in love with each other (even though they both have fellow prostitute boyfriends), kill their pimp, blame it on one of the boyfriends, and go off together as Nadia becomes a famous TV star and model. The ups and downs of their twisted relationship are explored while Nadia, who is the “bad girl” of the two, screws her way up the corporate entertainment ladder and Martha declines into a life of drug abuse and depression. Some sort of redemption supposedly takes place at the end, but it beats me what that is.

It’s kind of unfortunate that the story is so silly and pointless because the look of the film is great. Hardcore is director DennisIliadis’s first feature film and he does a great job of presenting the world these two live in as a dark, disturbing place. There are a few fantasy-type sequences in which Martha is dreaming of a better life that are really well done but are unfortunately like small diamonds periodically peeking out of a vast pool of foul, slimy, sewage.

Alright, I have another thing to get off my chest: I hated Leaving Las Vegas. That movie was, to me, a nihilistic exercise in depravity that had no point, no redeeming value, and was absolutely no fun. Hardcore seems to follow along the same lines as Leaving Las Vegas, and I enjoyed it about as much. I guess I just don’t get this kind of film-making because Leaving Las Vegas received a lot of critical acclaim when it came out and I’m sure somebody is going to think Hardcore is utterly brilliant. True, it’s visually appealing and clever at times, but it’s ultimately a waste of time.

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HardcoreRead More »

Universal is the real jerk on this skimpy DVD

“Whaddya mean you’ve never seen The Jerk?!?!?!?” is the usual response I got when people found out I had never seen the 1979 comedy favorite starring Steve Martin. I am slightly embarrassed that this incredibly popular movie somehow eluded me all these years and I am delighted to be reviewing Universal’s new 26th Anniversary Edition DVD for you loyal Razorfine readers.
Unfortunately, any promise the words “Anniversary Edition” might hold for this disc to be truly special are squelched when one looks at the back cover and sees the near complete lack of bonus features. Well, at least the movie is really funny.

The Jerk tells the story of a very stupid man, Navin Johnson (Steve Martin), as he leaves home for the first time and travels around the country looking for fame and fortune. Raised by a poor black family in Mississippi, Navin hears watered-down jazz music on the radio and is inspired to get out and find what life has waiting for him. On his way he works at a gas station for Jackie Mason, gets a job with a carnival, falls in love with Burnadette Peters, and invents an eyeglass apparatus that makes him a millionaire. Throughout all of this, Navin never gets any smarter, and his stupidity finally leads him to losing his entire fortune.

Martin plays the idiot brilliantly in his first starring role in a feature film. He also had a hand in the writing of the screenplay, which combined with his expert comedy timing and delivery make the film an incredibly goofy, funny viewing experience.

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The Smurfs finally make it to the big screen… three years from now!

Not Dolly Parton or Brian Dennehy

Thank god for the recent trend in remaking about goddamn everything known to man! Now there are plans to make a Smurf movie in 2008. Why the long delay? It will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the little blue devils, silly!
Even though Nickelodeon Films has reported that it will be a CGI-animated affair, I think it should be live action and star Jim Belushi as Gargamel. Carol Channing should be the cat and Dolly Parton should be Smurfette. It would be a toss up between Brian Dennehy or Wilford Brimley as Papa Smurf. Well, you get the idea. Read the whole article here.

Rock and Roll! Drugs! Furry Animal Costumes! Ladies and gentlemen, The Flaming Lips!

The Flaming Lips SMASH!

One of current rock’s most creative forces, The Flaming Lips, have had a rather unusual success story. Hailing from Oklahoma City in the early 80’s, they created a noisy and anarchic brand of psychedelic punk rock that found a cult audience of true freaks but bewildered most. As time went on the band somehow secured a major record label contract in the early 90’s, had a novelty alternative hit with a song called “She Don’t Use Jelly”, and was poised to be the next one-hit-wonder band of the mid 90’s to never be heard from again.
Then, a curious thing happened. They came out with two stellar albums in a row, 1999’s The Soft Bulletin and 2002’s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which gave them both critical raves and commercial success. A newly released documentary DVD, The Fearless Freaks, takes a look inside the band members’ personal lives while giving a slight history of how they got to be where they are today.

In The Fearless Freaks, filmmaker Bradley Beesley tries to give us two things: a history of the band and an intimate look at what makes them tick. The history is very disorganized and doesn’t give the viewer a very good idea of how the band progressed from scrappy, noisy punks to adventurous purveyors of orchestrated pop. None of the band’s five albums before their breakthrough Transmissions from the Satellite Heart are really discussed and there are few insights given into how they actually create any of their music.

While Freaks fails on the historical front, it wholly succeeds in providing a very personal document of the band’s origins, home lives, families, and even some of their troubles. The bulk of the movie is made up of current interviews with singer/guitarist Wayne Coyne and drummer/keyboardist/guitarist/all-around musical whiz Steven Drozd. Wayne’s childhood is discussed extensively, with a good portion of the film’s running time devoted to interviews with his family members (one of which was the band’s original singer). While watching these scenes it quickly becomes apparent that growing up in a culturally isolated place like Oklahoma City in the 70’s created the foundation of the band’s weirdness. The gang mentality that Wayne and his siblings had combined with the strange white-trash nature of the people involved make Oklahoma in the 70’s almost seem like a different planet (and this is coming from someone who grew up in Oklahoma about three hours away from the Coyne’s). All of this actually makes the band seem more mythical and strange.

A real turning point in the band came in 1991 with the addition of Steven Drozd. His musicality and ability to play multiple instruments gave the band a sharper focus and eventually steered them towards the kind of music they are making today. Of course, being a talented artist has its price, and Steven’s problems with substance abuse nearly ended the band on a few occasions. This is discussed with such openness that parts of the last third of the movie are a bit shocking, but it makes for very compelling viewing.

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Feeling dirty never felt so creepy!

There comes a time in all of our lives that we have to face the fact that life can be unbelievably cruel. Since good art should express the wide range of human experience, it is necessary for artists to sometimes explore the darker side of life, including the unbearably cruel events that people put each other through on a daily basis. However, there must be a purpose in explicitly showing this cruelty and that is where viewing disturbing art can become difficult. Does watching horrible events unfolding on a movie screen make us think about our own lives and how we treat the people that we come into contact with? I believe that in addition to exploring the darker side of human nature in his film Oldboy, director Chan-wook Park wants us all to think about our everyday actions and how they may affect those around us.
In Oldboy, seemingly regular guy Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) is kidnapped and held captive in an apartment for fifteen years. He never sees his captors and has no idea why he has been imprisoned. While in his unusual cell he watches TV, racks his brain about who he could have pissed off to get him in this situation, and eventually trains himself for revenge if he is ever to be released. Without warning he is released and then given five days to find out who his captor is and why he was imprisoned. Oh Dae-su meets up with sushi chef Lee Woo-jin (Yu Ji-tae), who takes him in and helps him with his quest. Oh Dae-su leaves a trail of blood in his wake as he scours the city for clues and sweet vengeance.
Let me just start out by saying that this is a very beautiful film as well as one of the most truly disturbing movies I’ve ever seen. Bad things happen to the main character from the beginning and continue throughout the movie’s 120 minute running time. Any bit of happiness that any of the characters seem to feel is immediately immolated and castrated on the spot. Hatred, spite, depravity, and rage are the order of the day and most events are played out with extreme violence and anger. Yet, Chan-wook Park has managed to present this in a very eye-pleasing and well-constructed thrill ride of a movie, and for that he should be congratulated.

From the outset you will realize that this film is masterfully made and inventively put together. The whole first portion of the movie documenting his fifteen years of captivity is very schizophrenic, reflecting the fragmented state of the character’s mind as he deals with the madness of not knowing why he is suffering in this way. The rest of the movie features some great action scenes including one where Oh Dae-su fights off what must be a hundred guys armed only with a hammer! The film looks great and was made by a director who truly knows his craft.
I just want to warn you, by the end of this movie I felt like my soul had been raped by a jackhammer. Ok, maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but still, it left me feeling deeply disturbed and exhilarated. However, there’s a real beauty to be found in all of this tragedy; a beauty made all the more poignant in the film’s finale where Oh Dae-su has to make an impossible moral choice just to be able to live what he’s discovered about himself. It is one of the biggest and most powerful emotional payoffs you’ll ever see in a movie, and one you’ll not soon forget. Oldboy is definitely not for the faint of heart, but those who enjoy involved storylines, gritty fight scenes, and explorations of the seedier side of things will find much to appreciate here.