Rubber

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To be honest we bipassed most of the hype surrounding Quentin Dupieux’s killer-tyre adventure on its release, partly because we’re lazy bastard and partly because… well, because it’s a film about a killer tyre.
Seriously, it’s the cinematic equivalent of hanging round Camden tube station in new rock boots. The premise screams “Look at me! Am i blowing your mainstream mind with my weirdness?! I bet I am yeah?!”
And that kind of thing can.. well, fuck off in general. No one cares.

So, seeing as the movie has now burst onto home screens as well (get it? Tyre.. burst… you see… sigh….) we thought it was well worth a revisit, judged entirely on it’s own charms rather than any surrounding hyperbole.
Surprisingly, there are a few Mitchelin stars to be had here…
Part of the fun comes from the meta-meta framing devices. From the off we have sheriff Stephen Spinella revealing that he knows it’s all just a movie, while we get lots of fourth wall bothering dialogue (The cops wondering what the audience is thinking work wonderfully), and the director isn’t averse to telling us about some of the challenges he faced making the film (Well – you try giving character to a Dunlop).

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Surprisingly, it’s these challenges that are overcome most successfully. ‘Robert’ amazingly becomes a character to root for, and there’s tons of fun to be had watching the weirdest take on a superhero origin story you’re likely to see this decade.

There’s also some fun character elements as we see the titular tyre peeking in on girls and having some very black humoured fun with his powers -cue tons of exploding heads and mutilated cops. Luckily they know that “Hey, it’s not real life…”.

Overall there’s a lot of positive things to say for Rubber. it’s funny, and there’s actually some rather lovely landscape photography going on from time to time, the tyre rolling endlessly down deserted desert roads gives the whole thing a surreal ‘Mad Max by Wim Wenders’ aesthetic.

Unfortunately there’s only so long a nice sunset can sustain your attention. There’s clunky dialogue to deal with and things start to become repetitive halfway through (although maybe that’s the point in a film about a wheel). Released as a short, this would be a fantastic calling card, but it’s a little too trying even for hardened midnight movie-goers.

Worth catching on cable, but not shelling out for yet, it definitly points out Dupieux as one to watch.

NewsGush: New Avatar Scene -Now With Added Earth!

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Once all the Imax-induced vertigo had passed, the common consensus round these here parts was that mega-blockbuster Avatar was..well, yeah, it was all right I suppose, if you like Dances With wolves and exploding helicopter gunships.

With that in mind it’s fair to say that the upcoming DVD extended cut had better be going some if it wants to stop audiences topping themselves half way through, especially given the three hour-plus running time and feature spread across three seperate disks. Amazingly though, this sounds like it might actually be worth getting.

Not only is it (of course) a piece of cinematic history (whether it’s a good or a bad one remains to be seen), but the film itself has some pretty groovy additions, including a screwed-up future planet Earth (looking an awful lot like Las Vegas for some reason) full of neon and breath masks, which gives a good insight into exactly a marine might prefer the deadly jungles of Pandora to returning home.

Anyhho, Big Jimbo’s latest is out on November 16th in the US, and will be available to steal on Pirate Bay four hours later.

NewsGush:The Human Sexipede

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As the cult of ass-to-mouth surrounding vile but slightly boring schocker The Human Centipede continues to grow, it was only a matter of time before someone figured out how to make it even more fucked up and off putting than it already was, and hey, while the original was pretty diabolical, it was also pretty, well boring really.

Luckily if there’s one thing garuanteed to spice up a party, it’s a huge pair of hooters, so take a bow The Human Sexipede!

Yep, it’s a porn parody that gives doggy style a whole new meaning if this trailer is anything to go by.

I’ll be honest with you, I’m actually a bit weirded out by this. Enjoy perverts, enjoy…

Saturday Night Movie: The House of the Devil

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Remember the 1980’s? They were well skill weren’t they? With your high-top trainers and body warmer you were probably pretty cool as you skateboarded down to the awesome new multi-screen cinema that opened in your town, hoping you could scope out some well wicked flicks and maybe score with some bodacious babes along the way.

So, you pay your £1.50 entrance fee and find that Tim Burton’s Batman is playing on 7 screens, and Back to the Future 2 is on the remaining 6 – woah; totally heinous dude! How’s a hard-core gorehound like you going to get his grue-filled kicks when every decent horror movie has been banned by Maggie Thatcher: Milk Snatcher?!

Well if you were resourceful, you popped down to your local video store/ice cream van, slipped them a tenner and got a dodgy third-hand VHS copy of Evil Dead, and possibly some crap German porn as a bonus. Or you could take the more circuitous route followed by director Ti West; Wait 25 years, then score some ancient filming equipment and film your very own hoary 80’s scarefest – with seriously scary results!

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Bargain Bin Breakout: She-Creature

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Major studios currently have one rule when it comes to horror – remake, remake, and remake again. Slasher flicks are the norm, usually with a tired, post-Scream makeover for the ironic/not-ironic-but-don’t-actually-know-any-better audience. With this in mind, it may come as a surprise to find STS championing a remake, especially one that doesn’t even have the benefit of decent source material. Be under no illusions, She-Creature contains all the ingredients for a crap-fest of epic proportions.

Taking a bloody awful 1956 Samual Arkoff movie as source, She-Creature thankfully plays fast and loose with it, originally billing itself as ‘the mermaid chronicles part 1’ it seems they couldn’t be bothered to make any follow-ups. Either that or they had so much fun with this that they knew it couldn’t be topped.

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