FORTRESS OF AMERIKKKA – We’re greeted by the image of a divided community and a grandiloquent voiceover that tells us that America is on the verge of being taken over by violent thugs – then ‘Fortress Of Amerikkka’ remembers it’s a Troma movie and hits us with a load of guns, tits and bad hair. Before you point out the obvious, no, I didn’t come to FOA expecting insightful social commentary. I thought it would be brazen trawl through Lloyd Kaufman’s shopping list of exploitation cliches, and that’s exactly what I got. It actually makes less sense than the average Troma movie, and kind of breaks down halfway through and turns into a parade of vignettes that hold together, but only in quite a choppy way. It’s overlong, but there’s exploding tents, random cat fights, a bit of gore and, don’t forget, guns, tits and bad hair. I’m not complaining. I quite liked it.
THE SEVENTH CURSE – Well, you won’t hear many complaining about this, not if they’ve got a film shelf like mine (which admittedly doesn’t apply to most of the planet). ‘The Seventh Curse’ takes its cue from those big budget Hollywood adventure flicks of the mid-eighties, but then pulverises that basic format into oblivion with messed up special effects, gore, and all manner of Hong Kong madness. The result is immense. Let’s just get one thing straight – it has a glowing-eyed skeleton that mutates into a bad Alien clone and, either before or after that bit, something that looks a little like a skull-faced cross between a slug and Casper The Friendly Ghost that flies around and then bites the f*ck out of someone’s throat. There's even a child-crushing machine! The inclusion of these elements should be my basic criteria for all pleasurable film viewing from this point on. Sadly, we live in a world where not every movie is ‘The Seventh Curse’, but hey, even a world with one ‘The Seventh Curse’ in it has to be at least pretty good. Seeing it in HD, versus my old DVD years back, was quite the education - I try not to get into this particular cliché too much, but it really did feel like a different movie, one that I enjoyed a hell of a lot more. Anyway – recommended. I suppose I’ll finish by saying I’m really impressed that 88 have brought it to the high street looking so dapper. I mean, can you imagine that happening even ten years ago? We must be living in some strange golden age, even as the sun supposedly sets on physical media.
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