PUMP UP THE VOLUME

                                   Pump Up the Volume

I the year 1990 there was a great deal of controversy over free speech especially in the teenage world. High school was the place we were afraid to speak our minds too much but when a pirate radio station is seducing the world of teenagers at Hubert Humfrey High school by the DJ Happy Harry Hard on the school and its corrupt principal are thrown into a battle of freedom of speech and the barriers back then in this pre Internet era.

What a cast starring Christian Slater who's star was on the rise he had already shocked audiences with his over the top performance in Heathers.  Samantha Mathis in an amazing debut the two would later team up for Broken Arrow.  Also starring Annie Ross in a very convincing role as the corrupt Principal I mean come on we all had a principal we hated or could compare back in those days.  Scott Paulin ( The Right Stuff ) and Ellen Greene ( Little Shop of Horrors ) as a sympathetic teacher.  Look fast for Seth Greene now famous for Family Guy and Austin Powers movies as one of the teenagers. Being a teenager in these times reflected heavily in this movie and even hits home today in many areas interesting as well no Internet back then so a short wave radio compared to our today's social networking makes you aware of the problems of yesterday are still very much the problems of today.  I give this movie 5 mad stars for its impact on me then and now seeing it from the perspective of a renegade teem myself who is now a parent and a Child Youth Worker of over 14 years this movie still has a magic that it stands out on its own. Props to Christian Slater for making such an impact.

THE SENTINEL 1977

The SENTINEL

Time to take a look back at a classic contemporary gothic horror film from that infamous 1970s era.
Lets start with the MAD effects! hauntingly chilling and a very yucky ending that you will not forget.  A young model Christina Raines ( Nashville) rents an apartment in a gloomy New York brownstone she soon realizes her neighbors  are very eccentric and an old priest played brilliantly by horror movie legend John Carradine ( the Howling ). Unimaginable horrors await to be unlocked in this spine tingling supernatural edge of your seat horror film that will make you jump out of your seat. Director Michael Winner( Death Wish 1-3 ) directs an all star cast including Chris Sarandon ( Fright Night ) Martin Balsam ( Cape Fear ) Ava Gardner Arthur Kennedy Sylvia Miles Deborah Raffin Eli Wallach ( Circle of Iron) Jose Ferrer ( the Swarm) and Burges Meredith in possibly his most chilling role ever! also look for future stars Christopher Walken Jeff Goldblum Jerry Orbach William Hickey Beverly D' Angelo ( in a daring debut) and Tom Berenger also Richard Dreyfuss can be glimpsed in a street scene. Now for the MAD controversy, Director Michael Winner used real human oddities for the climatic dead rising scene truly horrific and this one rates five MAD stars on Mikes MAD movie scale! Based on the novel by Jeffery Konvitz who also co -produces the film. Don't watch it alone! 

SAVAGES

Another MAD movie this time from the sometimes psychedelic world of Oliver Stone who brought you Natural Born Killers Platoon Wall street films JFK just to name a few. From the book by Don Winslow Oliver stone brings you SAVAGES his new crime thriller about three entrepreneurs’ who run a lucrative homegrown industry producing the best product ever sold in there beach community in southern California. Ex Seal and natural born killer (if you will pardon the punt) Chon Taylor Kitch (Battleship) and Ben a marijuana business specialist both share there undying love for Ophelia Blake Lively (Green Lantern) who has never looked better I might add is picked up by a very nasty Mexican Baja Cartel that is applying pressure to get the team to join them in business an offer shall we say they can not refuse. Great cast assembled here also starring in very intimidating ruthless performances Benicio Deltoro (Traffic, Sin City) as lado the enforcer and Selma Hayek (Desperado) as Elena head of the cartel. After a two year hiatus John Travolta (From Paris With Love, Pulp Fiction) is back playing a dirty DEA agent with his own agenda. As usual John Travolta brings his own manner of cool suave presence to the film. I feel today’s younger audience is going to identify with love aspects to this storey line as well as the older generation will enjoy the kick ass mayhem as well that Oliver Stone knows how to bring and the actors all play there roles very convincingly in this new stylish crime thriller what the storey line is lacking the charecters make it worth watching. A five star MAD movie.

completed Nov 18th

Sinister

Ultimately one of the most frightening movies in recent history lots of crazy intense suspense in this storey of a writer who is a true-crime author who found footage of the family that was murdered in his new home however this discovery puts his family in danger of an ancient supernatural evil entity.  The home movies he finds are chilling and disturbing very nicely done to create horrifying images you will not forget. Moment to moment suspense will keep you watching waiting in anticipation and maybe fear of what could possibly happen next should you close your eyes should you keep them open? You decide if your nerves can take it or if you will be sleeping with the lights on after this MAD movie.  Brilliant acting by star Ethan Hawke who is convincing that his “Reality Bites” in this film his character thrown in a small splash of humor just a little which even the most serious of horror films needs. Juliet Rylance plays his very concerned wife and two kids played by Clair Foley and Michael D.Addario who turn in outstanding performances. James Ransone (Prom Night) plays a sympathetic police officer and veteran actor Fred Dalton Thompson (Die hard 2) plays a local sheriff.  From producer Jason Blum of the Paranormal Activity films and Insidious Sinister is by far the superior film of the bunch.  Directed by Scott Derrickson (the Exorcism of Emily Rose) and here is a fun fact Vincent D’Onofrio who co starred with Ethan Hawke in The Newton Boys and Staten Island, Brooklyn’s Finest has a small role. A five star MAD MOVIE!

The Campaign - It’s time for a new review

The Campaign is truly the funniest of funny films of this year. Will Ferrell, who you loved in Anchorman and Old School, is back!  This time a politician!  Well, need I say more?  This is another masterpiece from Will Farrell who is at his zaniest.  American politics - what an easy but fun target as the punch line of this film.  It’s a great cast including Zach Galifinakis (who I don’t think is acting but that’s just my opinion of him - after all, how many morons can you play in a lifetime, right?  But he still makes you laugh I must say.)  Also co-starring Jason Sudeikis of Hall Pass and Horrible Bosses Dylan McDermott (The Messengers), Katherine LaNasa (Valentine’s Day),  John Lithgow (Third Rock From the Sun, Footloose) Brian Cox (The Bourne Identity) and who could miss Canada’s own Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters, Coneheads)?  Look for cameos by Bill Maher, Wolf Blitzer, Mike Mizanin and several others. This film takes several shots at American politics and does it well, depicting our society of social networking and media manipulation - not a far cry from the truth.  Here is a fun fact: Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow play brothers, in separate projects they have played aliens (Aykroyd in Coneheads and Lithgow in 3rd Rock From the Sun). Brilliantly directed by Jay Roach, who also directed the Austin Powers films; it’s guaranteed to make you laugh yourself silly.  Zach Galifinakis should do some real acting, if they make a Deliverance remake, and squeal like a pig…………….you know what I am talking about.  Truly a MAD Movie.

Spider Baby or the The Maddest Story Ever Told - 1964

Spider Baby is the cult classic directorial debut  of film maker Jack Hill, aka The Maddest Storey Ever Told or Cannibal Orgy.  Yes that’s right, they even get mentioned in the opening song.  This is the ultimate Mad Movie in my opinion.  Words like weird, sick and outlandish have been used to describe it. So here we have the last generation of the degenerate, inbred Merrye family living with the inherited curse of a disease that causes them to mentally regress from the age of 10 or so on as they continue to develop physically.  The children are cared for by the family chauffeur played by Lon Chaney Jr. (The Haunted Palace) who plays the role like the veteran horror movie actor he is.  We start out with a cameo by Mantan Moreland (veteran comedy actor) who pops up long enough to get himself killed.  It is Moreland’s character who brings us to the house inhabited by the Merrye family, along with a few other oddities and surprises.  What a creepy twisted haunted house movie; no one had ever saw a movie like it at the time.  Due to its subject matter - not to mention subtitles - this one sat on the shelf a long time before released in to theaters.  What a great cast starring Chaney Jr., Carol Ohmart (House on Haunted Hill), Quinn Redeker (Ordinary People), Beverly Washburn ( Old Yeller, and later starred in Hill’s Pit Stop) and  the late Jill Banner in her film debut turning in a stunningly creepy and somewhat sexy performance if you can imagine that!  Also features Sid Haig, who starred in Hill’s student film The Host, Mary Mitchel (Dementia 13), Karl Schanzer (Dementia 13) and Mantan Moreland who has been a character actor or comedian since the early 30's.  Hill was conflicted as to the title so it is known as Spider Baby and The Maddest Story Ever Told at the same time.  The DVD release features never before seen footage - obviously cinemas were too sensitive and the world was just not ready for Spider Baby back in its day.  But it is greatly appreciated by me and I think it is truly one of the MADest movies of all time.  MAD movie goers will enjoy this five star MAD movie.

Here are some fun facts: Chaney sang the opening song and this movie had to wait 33 years before it was released to cinemas in the UK...wow, big surprise.  It did however finally get released in North America in January of 1968, still a long to wait for film lovers of this weird genre...you know who you are.
 

Pit Stop 1967

Race fans will love Pit Stop! The tag line appropriately reads “crash-o-rama !” for this tense tale set against the backdrop of the auto-racing world. Figure 8 racing! Writer and director Jack Hill (Spider Baby) himself said it looked like suicide racing and what’s better than an all-American racing movie? A great love triangle, a living-on-the-edge story line and throw in the death defying racing which was actual footage he recorded. This cult classic stars acting legend Brian Donlevy in his last acting role as well as Dick Davalos (East of Eden), Ellen Burstyn (The Exorcist), Sid Haig (Spider Baby), Beverly Washburn (Spider Baby) and her brother George Washburn. This movie was shot in black and white and this was the end of the black and white era. Jack Hill commented in an interview that he did that so the smoky race tracks could be better viewed and not look so clouded. Fun fact: actor Sid Haig plays a race champion but in actual reality, at that time he could not drive. Look sharp for Director Jack Hill in a bit role presenting a trophy and actor Titus Moede, an underground film maker, can be glimpsed twice in the same scene - a slight editing error which Hill laughed about later in an interview with Johnny Legend. Race fans will love this movie, after all what’s not to love about fast cars and hot women in this very entertaining film? A MAD movie indeed.