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THE STORY OF RICKY – Infamous HK action-gore flick set in a futuristic prison, in which 'Ricky' has been incarcarated after avenging his gf's death. Ricky has supernatural strength-related powers. We are told this in a flashback sequence, but it is obvious from the way his hand-to-hand combat maneuvers tend to rip through human flesh without him having to try very hard. This attracts the attention of the prison warden, a strange dude with a metallic claw who keeps mints in his false eye. He also, for slightly baffling reasons, keeps a massive porn collection on open display in his office. Warden is a bit bad-ass, and sets the prison community's 'top dogs', a bunch of badly dressed lags who look like they were conceived during the New Romantic era, onto Ricky. Bloodbath follows etc etc. You'd be hard pressed to find a film which matches 'The Story Of Ricky' for both charm and gore, for not only is this movie ultra-violent, it's endearing, too. You don't get that combination very often. I guess the presence of goofyness, intentional humour that falls a bit flat, a hero you're supposed to unambiguously root for and wholesome values concerning who's bad and who's good go some way to lending the film a weird kind of cuteness. On the other hand, I guess most sane audiences would balk at the notion they're supposed to be entertained by the frequent spurts of utter and unremitting sadism, so maybe I'm in a minority in finding 'Ricky' a bit on the winsome side. Whatever, there's so much to enjoy about 'Ricky', which is a trash fest to end all others. The threadbare sets, the fact that people mutate into monsters just so that there can be a mega-fight scene with a human mincing machine in it, the 'Cuckoo's Nest' type ending... it all washes over you with a kind of 'why not?' feeling attached. You've probably already seen it, but if not, remedy that right away.
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The Final Cut is the definitive version so, once you have that one, there is no reason to watch the others other than to compare them or, as I said, for novelty value or out of curiosity.
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31 (2016) The first Rob Zombie film I've liked since 'The Devil's Rejects'. It's not quite as good as that but overall I enjoyed it. It’s far from being great there's still some of the filmmaker’s usual shit in it and the finale is anticlimactic but there's some solid direction here with nice visuals and some truly effective sequences of brutality. Despite the terrible name, Doom Head is probably Zombie’s best character to date - a highly memorable horror villain brought to life with a great performance by the hugely talented character actor Richard Brake. *** out of *****
__________________ My articles @ Dread Central and Diabolique Magazine In-depth analysis on horror, exploitation, and other shocking cinema @ Cinematic Shocks |
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__________________ Frolic in brine, goblins be thine. |
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Bit of a mixed bag this week... Dekalog pt 6 aka a Short story About Love - superb. A compelling and intriguing study of obsession, loneliness and the fleeting nature of love, with a real sense of historical and national identity. Yes this is bleak and somewhat depressing but it undoubtedly leaves a lasting impression and is thought-provoking. Looking forward to watching the rest of the set. Mask Maker - Young couple inexplicably move to a run-down money-pit in backwoods America and run into the local (resurrected in this case) nut-job. Seen this done 100 time before and 100 times better. Nothing to recommend here, sadly. Children of the Corn II - Full disclosure, this is not a great film, in fact it's probably not even a good film but this is a lot of fun in my opinion. The dialogue is cornier than the fields of Gatlin as is the acting but what saves this are some inventive and, at times, hilarious set pieces. Death by being flattened by your own house, death by being steered into the path of a truck in an electric wheelchair, it's all there! Also, I still find the overall concept of the children turning against the adults quite creepy so I do enjoy the COTC sequels, no matter how crap they may be! |
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