13 Game of death (2007)

This is a movie I've heard a lot about, that it is supposed to be really disgusting and violent and gets progressively worse the further to the end of the movie we get. Yes, I admit, there are a couple of gross scenes but in the end this is mostly hype. It is still well made hype and the story is interesting enough to keep watching.

13 game of death tells the story of a geeky guy who first loses his girlfriend, then his car and job in the same day. At that moment he gets a phonecall from an unknown person who claims to call from some sort of gameshow and offers him a lot of money if he performs 13 different challenges. It starts out easy by killing a fly (And establishing that they are watching him) but challenge number two is eating the very same fly. The following challenges consists of robbing homeless people, making children cry and eating a plate full of shit. Then it gets much, much worse.

13 game of death isnt really that stomachchurning movie that the filmmakers want it to be, but it still is a fun flick that moves at a good pace. The direction is stable and the movie has a very competent and stylized look about it. The actors are great, especially Krissada Terrence as the lead and this helps the movie immensly-. The only thing I dont really like is the ending, some sort of twist that the filmmakers want to be clever but is just silly. Other than that, 13 game of death is a well made movie that is very watchable, but just dont expect any major sickness. I've seen much worse.

American gangster (2007)

Here is another movie that doesnt really fit on this blog, but it is too good to ignore. Ridley Scott has created an excellent and violent gangstermovie set in the 70:s and when the theme from Across 100th street popped up during a montage showing the drugs spreading on the streets, I was in heaven. Awesome.

Hitman (2007)

In one way, Hitman is a groundbreaking movie. It's not a masterpiece in any way, nor is it the best videogame movie adaption I have ever seen. It is what it is, a decent, well shot and violent actionmovie with a decent pace. There is never any time to be bored and even though the plot is really weak, it does what a decent actionmovie should do - entertain. It serves up large amounts of bloody gunshotwounds and nudity (if you watch the unrated version of course. Dont even bother to go near the R-rated one) and Timothy Olyphant makes a great nr 47, the ultimate hitman who is doublecrossed and spends the movie finding out why, while killing lots of people in satisfyingly bloody ways. I thank Xavier Gens for not letting the movieproducers make this into a PG13 movie.

So, why is it a groundbreaking movie? What exactly does Hitman do so right that I have to commend it for it? The answer:

Good digital blood. This is the first movie to date where I couldnt not tell that a lot of the blood was digitally added, but from looking at the comparision between the R-rated version and the unrated you can see that there is quite a lot of extra. Of course, the actionscenes could have been shot twice but I sincerely doubt that. That is why this is an important movie.

Or I could be very wrong, I am not basing this on fact, most of it is pure assumption which would mean that Hitman is just another violent actionmovie and this review is pointless. Come to think of it, as I am finishing up this piece of writing, I really dont know where I got the idea of this. It just seemed like a good idea for a review and I just might've gotten your attention. Oh well, very, very watchable pointlessness though. So sue me.

Here is the comparision between the different version. Highly recommendable site, porn for us gorehounds, I mean valuable information for us moviebuffs.

Bohachi Bushido: Code Of The Forgotten Eight (1973)

Japan, I love you! I bow down to the glory that is Bohachi Bushido aka Porno jidaigeki. It's like there is a heaven and I've been given a glimpse of the wonderful light and its warmth that still glows within me!

No, I have not gone religious, I've just watched Teruo Ishiis supreme blend of boobs and violence that is Bohachi Bushido: Code of the forgotten eight. Movies like this always try to balance on a small thread but they either rely too much on violence (eh. as if there can be too much violence in a movie) or too much sex, which frankly tends to be a bit boring after a while. This movie, however, is truly the perfect mix of nipples and sliced off ears that exists in this day. Based on a manga by the creators of Lone Wolf and Cub (which most likely is even more sick and violent than the movie. Thank you Japan.), the movie stars Tetsuro Tanba (You've all seen him as Tiger Tanaka in the Bondmovie You only live twice) as Shino, the coldest Ronin ever, a guy that makes Itto Ogami seem like Jim Carrey. After slaughtering a number of officers in a stylized fight on a bridge, he is taken in by the Clan of the forgotten eight, a group that takes its name from the fact that they've lost the way to feel basic emotions like shame, guilt and conscience. They run a prostitution racket and want Shino to clean out the other groups while under their protection. Of course, all of this is a diabolical plot by the leader of the clan who intends to dispose of Shino as soon as he no longer is needed but Shino does not really care. He is a badass whose motto is "To die is Hell, but to live is also hell" who has a bodyguard consisting of five naked women. Ah, dont we all want to be just like Shino.

Yes, this is Entertainment with a capital E. Sure, the plot is mainly an excuse to show nudity and graphic violence but it is still treated 100 percent seriously by Teruo Ishii, a director whose output is not like anything else in the same period. Every shot is treated like a a painting, stylish and beautiful and this is what makes the movie unique and keeps it from being just another Pinky violence piece. The 81 minutes run by faster than llightning and you kind of wish that the movie was several hours longer. There is so much fun stuff to watch, tons of nudity and sliced of bodyparts. If you have any interest in the japanese version of exploitation, you must own this. Worship it.

Beneath (2007)

When a movie really is too generic for it's own good but you still enjoy it, is that a sign of decent craftsmanship or just that I was very bored at the moment? Beneath is such a movie. It has an ok plot, but is fairly bloodless, has an main character that has a annoying rating that is leaning towards high and screams "Shot in Vancouver". I have really nothing against shooting movies in Canada, but this looks more like an x-files episode than anything else. The fact that it is produced by MTV studios didnt exactly help. But then again, I actually found myself fairly entertained and you can do a lot worse than this. A young girl accidentally causes her older sister to be horribly damaged in an exploding car and when the sister dies, this causes her to break down mentally and is confined to a mental institution for a number of years. Some time later a friend of the family dies and she returns to the old family home. People starts to die and our heroine suspects her sisters husband to be covering up for the murder of her sister. But on the other hand, she also starts to have these blackouts and weird visions. What is real and what is true?

The keyword is not bad. Beneath is well shot, decently acted and although the plot is fairly predictable and nothing new, it still has a twist ending which actually surprised me. Not in the M Shamalamalaynaningan way where you are supposed to be looking for clues all throughout the movie, but an ending which made you say: Did they actually just do that? I've seen a lot worse. Dont go in expecting the reinventing of the wheel and you'll do just fine.

Fun stuff of the internet

I had a little shoppingspree on ebay a few weeks ago and here are the fun results:


An original Phase IV poster. nicely hysterical poster which really tries to make the movie look entirely different from what it is.


Perfect reading for the summer. I'm gonna read these on the balcony with a gintonic or two.... nice. I also bought the novelization of John Frankenheimers great mutant bearmovie, but it hasnt arrived yet.


An Australian Galaxy of terror poster.


A Mexican lobbycard of William Malones fun Alienclone Creature aka Titan find


An original Japanese program of William Malones Creature aka Titan find. I love that movie.

Van Diemens Land (2009)

Here is a fun little flick about men eating other men. No, it's not a Jeff Stryker movie and there's actually nothing fun about it whatsoever. What we have here is a supposedly true story about a group of English and Irish convicts in Australia in the early 1800s that escape into the Tasmanian rainforest, a really nasty place with no wildlife and nothing to eat. No one knows what really happened, the movie is based on the the only survivors confession that the authorities at the time thought was just something to cover for the rest of the escaped prisoners.

This is just depressing stuff. In short, this movie features a group of eight men walking through a truly awesome landscape (if it werent for the subject, the movie would be a perfect commercial for tourism in Tasmania. It is that beatiful.) while killing each other off one by one, eating the remains. They are all dirty, hungry and ruthless which unfortunately means that there are no characters to care for. Actually, there are no characters to speak of at all. The actors do an exellent job but the problem is that the only means of characterization is just who is hostile to who within the group. At the end of the day it is fairly hard to keep track of all of them and their motivations, especially halfway into the movie when everyone is covered in filth and wet from rain. This makes it a bit harder to feel any major anguish when the brutal violence starts,when you are having a hard time realizing who just got killed, it all feels a bit wasted. The various different accents and the fact that the dvd I watched has no subtitles other than when some of the characters speak Gaelic doesnt really help.

But, make no mistake, this is not a bad movie, just a slightly flawed one. As I mentioned earlier Van Diemens Land looks incredibly good especially since it was made on a fairly low budget and the locations are truly spectacular. The story in itself is a very interesting one and I suspect that part of my initial dissapointment lie in the fact that this is not a horrormovie. This is not a goremovie, most of the violence is implied (except for the first murder, a really nasty and brutal piece of execution) which does make it all the more harrowing than if it had been shown in graphic detail. Van Diemens Land is a brutal drama about people who are willing to do _anything_ to survive and if you are able to stomach its brutality (for once I actually believe the stories about people walking out of screenings) it is quite a journey. Yes, these characters are sentenced criminals but you never find out for what. Are these acts of ruthlessness or of desperation? The movie never even tries to give an answer to that question. It just shows you the nasty details and lets you decide for yourself. A lingering experience that isnt for everyone.