Spent a recent afternoon watching a triple bill from the selection on our DVR, beginning with TerrorVision:
Not enough here to sustain a feature-length anything, but it’s got more charm than the average Charles Band production. It’s actually mildly funny, for one.
Next up was the remake of Rollerball, which even Paul Heyman couldn’t save:
Terri-ball, more like it. How John McTiernan went from making one of the best action movies ever in Predator to this in 15 years is just… But no, the well was already dry by the time he made Last Action Hero.
Luckily I closed out the session with the fabulous Shogun Assassin:
This American re-edit of two Japanese samurai classics is a grindhouse classic in its own right, feted as a grand guignol ballet of violence. And that’s all fantastic; the oversaturated bloodletting is as magical realist as the occasional supernatural interludes. But for me, it’s much more remarkable for how it’s shot. Japanese cinema was aesthetically so far ahead of the west in this time: the material here was filmed in the early ’70s but looks like a far more recent production, so sophisticated in its composition, use of colour and editing techniques. Sure, some won’t be able to look beyond the savagery and ridiculousness of its set pieces, but they’ll be missing out on what’s a truly beautiful film to watch.