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Dell have you ever seen Hanniball Rising? I saw it and couldnt decide if I wanted to rent it, so I passed it up.
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Once many years ago, I've already planned on seeing it again soon since I don't remember much about it.
Unfortunately, yes. Here's the review I did on MM (sorry for some minor spoilers, it upset my nerves & I couldn't help myself but the main secret of the movie is kept):
Hannibal Rising
Rated R, 130 minutes (unrated DVD version).
Directed by Peter Webber. Starring Gaspard Ulliel, Gong Li, Dominic West, Rhys Ifans.
Plot: A prequel to all the Hannibal Lecter movies, most notably Silence of the Lambs,. We get to see the serial killer grow up and develop his taste for human flesh.
The Good: It takes the not as often used approach of making a slasher movie from the slasher's point of view, transforming him into an anti-hero. Once it settles into a rhythm it does what horror movies often do & come up with creativel brutal killings, usually decapitations. Due to a big budget for the genre, its actually a glossy looking movie with some nice cinematography. Gong Li does well as Hannibal's Japanese aunt, Lady Murasaki, even though she's Chinese (sorry, a pet peeve of mine).
The Bad: This Hannibal Lecter shows no traces of becoming "THE" Hannibal Lecter who meets and manipulates Clarice in Lambs. The movie pretends it's showing the development of a serial killer, throws a bunch of nonsense together & says "See, it works" when it obviously doesn't. The Hannibal from Lambs is extremely intelligent, obviously well educated, a connoisseur of elegance, has a colorful vocabulary, is extraordinarily manipulative & able to charm even those who know he has a vile penchant for cannibalism. This Hannibal is a mono-syllabic brute (some of his "classmates" even believe him to be a mute), never really appears that smart, seemingly has no real training in matters of ettiquette, is sloppy in his work, misappropriates every lesson he's taught, isn't likeable in the least (his childhood does elicit pity, though), is bent on revenge & is in love with his aunt. Even if she is an aunt by marriage it still comes off as creepy. Oh, just in case viewers actually remember he's supposed to be a genius when he grows up they just all of a sudden drop him into medical school & make him the youngest person ever accepted to this school. The problem with this is nothing that leads up to this even suggests he'd ever be let near that school. Finally, the entire movie revolves around Hannibal finding out exactly what happened to his little sister, Mischa (Helena Lia Tachovska). It's so telegraphed that by the time Hannibal hears the big revelation, my four year old daughter would have already known for about an hour & a half (though, its too gruesome a movie for me to actually test that theory). How all this translates into him becoming an insatiable serial killer is shaky at best. The revenge tale works if there were no established history for this character. Since there is, everything here is just a betrayal of what we already know. Worse part of all for me, with the WWII background of the character it felt like a bad preview of the planned upcoming Magneto movie for the X-Men villain.
The Ugly: One of Hannibal's victims is tied to a tree so loosely I spent the whole scene wondering why he doesn't just get up & run (see the pic, but know that it looks even looser in live action).
Recommendation: See this if you just want to see a few heads lopped off. You might like this if you either have no prior knowledge of Hannibal Lecter or can ignore what you know. Also give it a look if revenge movies are your thing. Otherwise skip it, you're not missing anything special.
The Internet Says: 6.0 on imdb.com, 15% on the tomatometer
MY SCORE: 3.5/10Comment
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Black Dynamite
2009. Rated R, 90 minutes.
Director: Scott Sanders.
Starring Michael Jai White, Salli Richardson, Kevin Chapman, Tommy Davidson.
Plot: When he finds out that his brother's been murdered, Black Dynamite (White) set out to find the jive turkey responsible and make him pay. Can you dig it?
The Good: It painstakingly recreates the look and feel of a real blaxploitation flick. This includes lots of the flubs the genre is known for. The funniest of these being the editing "mistakes" is which something causes star Michael Jai White to seemingly come out of character for a moment, often talking or gesturing directly to the audience before an abrupt cut. It works everytime. Speaking of White, he gets double kudos here. I've never been a big fan of his actual acting but he gives what's easily the best performance of his career, he's simply note-perfect. He's also co-writer of the screenplay. I didn't know he had it in him. As a welcome addition, blaxploitation isn't the only targe. Seventies standard and one of my all time faves, Enter the Dragon also gets a healthy skewering. Overall, a large number of movies are referenced here but don't overwhelm the film like they do in the Scary Movie, Date Movie, etc franchise. Instead, they're nicely incorporated into the movie as part of its own narrative which even manages to get in some apt social commentary.
The Bad: A couple of gags are overused. In particular, the one where someone instantly starts crying when speaking about a loved one who's "in trouble" gets old fast. The first time or two Kym Whitley does it, its funny. The next thirty times when everyone else in the movie does it, its tedious. Also, there's too much Tommy Davidson for my taste. Somehow, in a movie purposely overdone to spoof genre full of movies known for being over the top, he still overdoes. I'd have much rather seen he and Arsenio Hall, who has a bit part, switch roles.
The Ugly: The very brief appearance of Abraham Lincoln...yes Abraham Lincoln...is a symbolic stroke of satiric genius.
Recommendation: Here's the part where you question my judgment. If you know me, you might know that I count I'm Gonna Git You Sucka among the very best spoofs ever made. Made by the Wayans family way back when they were actually funny, its a brilliant send-up of the blaxploitation genre. I feel very comfortable saying BD is at least as good and far better than the other popular movie of its kind, Undercover Brother. I'm sure the fact that I've seen and enjoyed dozens of blaxploitation flicks and watched Enter the Dragon dozens of times has something to do with it. Enjoying spoofs requires knowledge of the source material to use as a reference point and the ability to see the ridiculousness in that material. For this movie I have a huge point of reference and there's no denying the genre's ridiculousness. Knowing this, if you watch it and tell me its the dumbest thing you ever laid eyes on I'll understand. I'll just be thinking the opposite.
The Opposite View: A.O. Scott, New York Times
What the Internet Says: 7.7/10 on imdb.com (11/20/09), 84% on rottentomatoes.com, 65/100 on metacritic.com
MY SCORE: 10/10Comment
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Yessir I knew you'd dig Black Dynamite.....review is on point!Comment
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Don't Answer the Phone
1980. Rated R, 85 minutes.
Director: Robert Hammer.
Starring Nicholas Worth, Flo Lawrence, James Westmoreland, Ben Frank.
A photographer (Worth) with some serious issues goes around raping and strangling women. In his spare time, he calls up psychiatrist Dr. Lindsay Gale (Lawrence) on her radio show. Worth gives a surprisingly good performance as our killer. However, he wasn't given much to work with in this no-budget thriller. Its effective in showing the villain unravel and become more frantic and even desperate as the film goes on. The rest of the script is so lame, and at times so stupid, you can't take any of it as seriously as its obviously meant to be. This just means there is a solid amount of unintentional humor. Sadly, the DVD version I got a hold of contains what appears to be a highly and oddly edited version. Some curse words are obviously cut from the audio while others aren't. Each kill scene abruptly ends just the killer starts to rip the victim's clothes off yet during a couple scenes in an adult bookstore you can plainly see pictures of naked women plastered on all the walls. There's also the setup of a love scene from which we skip to the aftermath when the couple is lying in bed. Though its dimly lit you can pretty clearly see her breasts. It's a bizarre viewing experience but in a frustrating, confusing manner moreso than the fun romps of 'so bad they're awesome' movies. Granted, I'll probably have to see the unedited version to really do a proper review. As it is, what I saw was painful.
MY SCORE: 2/10Last edited by dell71; 02-22-2010, 02:59 PM.Comment
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That poster makes it look like a snuff film.Comment
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yeah, by reading you review it looks like you got the SyFy channel (lol @ that lame ass spelling) version.Comment
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Did you see A Serious Man?
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