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TonyVan
Reviews
Eight Days a Week (1997)
Fun Take on Teenage Angst
The "geek friend tries to win girl of his dreams" high concept works, but not much new is added. The hero pines for the girl of his dreams, and plots how to get her to love him.
The movie shines in the sub-plot areas, where the secondary characters lives come to light. Especially nice are the revelations of the grandfather, the crazy old lady and the "rear-window" inspired man.
Perhaps the coolest bit comes in the creative end credits; each cast and crew member gets a special "sidewalk name credit" that highlights their character. I especially like the "Spit" credit and the "Lighting" DP credit.
Steel (1997)
Not that bad!
Despite a horrible preview, I felt the movie was not as bad as I expected it to be (and certainly not as bad as many other IMDB users have voted!)
Bottom line, nothing new here but a nice story about not giving up on yourself. Shaq is fine as the hero, and Annabeth Gish stands out as his crippled friend.
I hope Kenneth Johnson gets more chances to direct, as I like his style. (look for cameos by Gary Graham and Eric Pierpoint, his two stars from the Alien Nation TV shown!)
Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989)
One smart comedy!
This is one of my favorite films of the low-budget comedy genre. The script is brilliant in its attacks on macho men and feminist women.
Bill Mahr and Shannon Tweed have excellent comic timing, as they run though a plot "borrowed" from Heart of Darkness aka Apocolypse Now. Karen Mistal and Andrean Barbeau are also very funny.
The DVD is nice, but not letter-boxed. Only a trailer and some small cast bios are included.
Escape from New York (1981)
Blows it's sequel away
Watching EFNY again, I cannot believe how cool it is compared to later JC films (especially the God-awful EFLA). The energy and originality is equal to his earlier efforts (Assault on Precinct 13 and Dark Star). Granted, there are some eye-brow rasing moments where the film gets a little too silly, but all in all, the film moves, and Snake is cool!
Also, check out the Director's Version, just to see the cut footage from the beginning of the film (How Snake Got Busted) and some comments from James Cameron on his SFX work for the film.
The Fog (1980)
Good story, slow pacing
Despite the other glorious reviews on this site, I found The Fog to be mildly entertaining. The modern day ghost story was interesting, but it never gells. The pacing is VERY SLOW, and no character really gets a chance to stand out.
However, the film is ripe with triva (which is detailed in other comments and in the Trivia area) which makes it much more fun if you are a JC fan.