Vinegar Syndrome et al.

[pianocrash]

Tsai's Rebels of the Neon God is part of today's $10 BD Daily Deals, along with Brocka's Cain and Abel, and, once again, Alien From L.A.

[dwk]

Today's VSA announcement is Black Cat & Black Cat 2

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

I thought Black Cat was quite dull when I saw it some years ago. I’ve always meant to see the sequel just for the having the best title in the history of cinema, Black Cat 2: Assassination of Boris Yeltsin.

[Mr Sausage]

I thought Black Cat was quite dull when I saw it some years ago. I’ve always meant to see the sequel just for the having the best title in the history of cinema, Black Cat 2: Assassination of Boris Yeltsin.

Black Cat is more interesting than Point of No Return at least. Mostly what stood out to me was how weird it felt. Here's my write-up from last year:

The movie that shot Jade Leung to HK stardom and landed her a few awards. Intended as a remake of La Femme Nikita, the filmmakers couldn’t secure the rights, so they just ripped it off instead. There’s a certain off-kilter disturbance to the movie, especially in the opening: it’s often done in the style of a western movie, and then the action starts and you get the swiftness, slightly overtuned editing, and greater rhythmic sense of HK filmaking. It’s an odd feeling, like two sensibilities colliding. There’s also the usual HK indifference to non-Chinese actors. They read their lines in a monotone like they’re reciting them off a piece of paper someone just handed them, sometimes unintelligibly or with outright flubs and self corrections. Tho’ we're meant to be in America, a lot of the actors have Australian accents; and one mission set in New York is plainly happening in the wilds of BC. It’s such a strange experience; so much is just off. For a D&B production, there isn’t a lot of action, and when it does arise it’s fairly simple, again more like an American film. The film also seems thirty minutes too short, like its missing the last act. For all that, it's a pacy, consistently entertaining movie. In no way exceptional or noteworthy, but an ok time.

[dwk]

Today's Cinématographe asnnouncement is Red Rock West Blu-ray.

[domino harvey]

A great movie but I’m prob fine with my German Blu ray that cost like nine dollars

[dwk]

Red Rock West is from a new 4k scan of the Interpositive, so it should look better than previous releases. Having said that, the price for these fancy VS editions is a little much.

[TechnicolorAcid]

To be fair about the price, this is a slipcase housing a mediabook so I imagine the cost is purely packaging like their VSU line and they will have cheaper standard editions in the future if you want to save a couple bucks.

[therewillbeblus]

Figures, caved and bought the UK blu last month

[jazzo]

Shit, that maybe have been on my recommendation. The Plan B one, right? I was recommending that one when I thought Kino’s rumoured release was still in the running.

I still think Plan B’s a great little edition with a solid transfer and substantial extras.

I’m tempted by the VS, but think I’m sticking with the UK.

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah I watched it again recently and it looks the same old cruddy but perfectly suitable image. I revisit the film often enough where it might just be worth the double dip depending on how this looks

[dwk]

Thanks dwk! Here's hoping.

A standard edition of DARYL UHD has appeared at Hamilton book for $27.95 (They also have the standard UHDs of eXistenZ for $29.95 and The Prophecy Trilogy for $44.94)

[hearthesilence]

FWIW, Tough Guys Don't Dance will be screening from a 35mm print this Wednesday and Sunday night at Roxy Cinema with an introduction by Mailer's son, Michael Mailer, at Wednesday's screening. (EDIT: Friday's screening appears to have been cancelled.)

I'm not sure if I'd see it again, but I thought it was a good campy dark comedy, and a completely strange mix of things that seem at odds with each other - to be honest, I'm not sure if the film would be all that interesting if everything was executed with sharp precision and professionalism or if every element was thoroughly clumsy and amateurish. I get the impression that the producers thought they had a potential Blue Velvet on their hands when they agreed to finance it (Isabella Rossellini and Angelo Badalamenti's involvement doesn't seem coincidental), but even with Mailer directing his own novel, the filmmaking for better and worse lacks Lynch's skill and consistency in vision.

FWIW, the late Michael Wilmington reviewed this when it was originally released, and while other supporters like Dave Kehr and Vincent Canby recommended it with the caveat that it's enjoyably bad, Wilmington was one of the rare critics who had a much higher opinion than that. An excerpt:

Mailer's 1984 novel-from which he scripted and directed this charmingly cracked nightmare comedy-was a self-conscious existential thriller, full of ruminations on machismo and thick with seedy, rotten characters whose collective morality might have lodged easily in the belly of a flea.

The movie, in turn, is a self-conscious modern film noir, an ominous romantic farce fueled by the fear of homosexuality. Like the book, it's suffused with nightfall melancholy, the sour dread of late-morning hangovers, chewed-up honor and nameless fears sneaking under the sunlight. It's a story that dances through death's darkness and ends in a cackling blaze of witches' laughter.

And where the novel had gorgeous metaphors, the film-thanks to cinematographer John Bailey-has darkly gorgeous visuals. There are stark Edward Hopperesque streets here, plumed with mist and achingly clear gray daylight, briny night scenes washed in windy threat.

Mailer's three previous film-making efforts-those harsh, semi-improvised '60s works-didn't hint at the suave surface here. Even when the pace seems off or the staging a bit clumsy, Mailer and the actors get an edgy feel into nearly every scene.

The dialogue is a brew of Hemingway tough talk laced with oddball Joycean jive and rhetorical flourish; the cast chews into these lines with an insidious savor...

Some will find Tough Guys Don't Dance ludicrous; others will complain that it lacks big studio movie flash. True-but why mourn the absence of an expertise mostly made to distract audiences from the emptiness of the story they're being told?

Whatever else you can say about this film, it's alive with ideas and a rich, strange view of the world. Even at its most awkward moments, Mailer's brilliance shines out of nearly every scene.

Perhaps the movies should be grateful for the compliment he's paid them-albeit with tongue partly in cheek. Stealing time that might have been reserved for another big novel, Mailer diverts it into a homage to the films he loved as a young man. He almost revives the soul, as well as the surface, of film noir, making it again a dark, lucid mirror of society's corruptions, wicked hypocrisies and evil glamour.

[Mr. Deltoid]

FWIW, Tough Guys Don't Dance will be screening from a 35mm print this Wednesday, Friday and Sunday night at Roxy Cinema with an introduction by Mailer's son, Michael Mailer, at Wednesday's screening.

I'm not sure if I'd see it again, but I thought it was a good campy dark comedy, and a completely strange mix of things that seem at odds with each other - to be honest, I'm not sure if the film would be all that interesting if everything was executed with sharp precision and professionalism or if every element was thoroughly clumsy and amateurish. I get the impression that the producers thought they had a potential Blue Velvet on their hands when they agreed to finance it (Isabella Rossellini and Angelo Badalamenti's involvement doesn't seem coincidental), but even with Mailer directing his own novel, the filmmaking for better and worse lacks Lynch's skill and consistency in vision.

FWIW, the late Michael Wilmington reviewed this when it was originally released, and while other supporters like Dave Kehr and Vincent Canby recommended it with the caveat that it's enjoyably bad, Wilmington was one of the rare critics who had a much higher opinion than that. An excerpt:

Mailer's 1984 novel-from which he scripted and directed this charmingly cracked nightmare comedy-was a self-conscious existential thriller, full of ruminations on machismo and thick with seedy, rotten characters whose collective morality might have lodged easily in the belly of a flea.

The movie, in turn, is a self-conscious modern film noir, an ominous romantic farce fueled by the fear of homosexuality. Like the book, it's suffused with nightfall melancholy, the sour dread of late-morning hangovers, chewed-up honor and nameless fears sneaking under the sunlight. It's a story that dances through death's darkness and ends in a cackling blaze of witches' laughter.

And where the novel had gorgeous metaphors, the film-thanks to cinematographer John Bailey-has darkly gorgeous visuals. There are stark Edward Hopperesque streets here, plumed with mist and achingly clear gray daylight, briny night scenes washed in windy threat.

Mailer's three previous film-making efforts-those harsh, semi-improvised '60s works-didn't hint at the suave surface here. Even when the pace seems off or the staging a bit clumsy, Mailer and the actors get an edgy feel into nearly every scene.

The dialogue is a brew of Hemingway tough talk laced with oddball Joycean jive and rhetorical flourish; the cast chews into these lines with an insidious savor...

Some will find Tough Guys Don't Dance ludicrous; others will complain that it lacks big studio movie flash. True-but why mourn the absence of an expertise mostly made to distract audiences from the emptiness of the story they're being told?

Whatever else you can say about this film, it's alive with ideas and a rich, strange view of the world. Even at its most awkward moments, Mailer's brilliance shines out of nearly every scene.

Perhaps the movies should be grateful for the compliment he's paid them-albeit with tongue partly in cheek. Stealing time that might have been reserved for another big novel, Mailer diverts it into a homage to the films he loved as a young man. He almost revives the soul, as well as the surface, of film noir, making it again a dark, lucid mirror of society's corruptions, wicked hypocrisies and evil glamour.

That's some lovely critical prose by Wilmington, perfectly capturing why the film is more than Bad-Movie-Fodder (though it is that as well). Thank's for digging that up heartthesilence!

[hearthesilence]

You're welcome Mr. Deltoid!

[What A Disgrace]

Five Women for the Killer is probably the dullest giallo I've seen, I wonder why it wasn't relegated to the Forgotten Gialli sets, whereas the genuinely well liked and not-at-all forgotten The Bloodstained Shadow is in part 6.

[jazzo]

March 2024 VS:

Phase IV (4K)
5 Card Stud
A Man Called Hero
The Playgirls and the Vampire
Herencia Diabolica

and

Spanish Bloodbath: Night of the Skull / Violent Blood Bath / The Fish With The Eyes of Gold

[domino harvey]

March 2024 VS:

5 Card Stud

I assume there’s another film called this, because I can’t imagine VS releasing a Dean Martin/Robert Mitchum western

EDIT: Wow, they actually are. It IS terrible, so I guess it makes sense for their model…

[tenia]

It's actually a unique Hollywood genre hybrid from an acclaimed director celebrated and with an Academy Award nominee, a Rat Pack member, a cult character actor, a two time Emmy nominee, plus an early performance from a future star, for the first time ever released on BD !

[domino harvey]

Ha! Here’s a write up from the Westerns thread by future county fair pie-baking winner domino harvey

I really hope you all appreciate my Christlike sacrificial devotion to justly forgotten Westerns in this thread.

5 Card Stud (Henry Hathaway 1968) There are certain actors that rarely if ever show up in westerns, usually for good reason. Roddy McDowall is not a name I'd associate with the genre-- though, browsing IMDB to confirm my suspicions, this wasn't his only western. Regardless, while his sniveling adult screen persona lends itself well to playing the heavy, he is hopelessly miscast here. But at least the film he's miscast within is so terrible that no one will ever know. How can Dino palling around with Robert Mitchum's gun-toting preacher go wrong? Because everything in this movie goes wrong. Hathaway is a decent hired hand with no authorial touches, but even he's better than whatever is supposed to be happening here. Westerns can't really sustain mysteries and this one gives up the answer long before it thinks it does. The only thing separating this from some cut-rate western TV show from the same era is (insert covert mumbling)

And I know women rarely fare well in westerns anyway, but hadn't they suffered enough without pinning on their sex a black hole of talent like Katherine Justice?

[swo17]

Partner label releases include Bubble Bath from Deaf Crocodile and Réjeanne Padovani from CIP. Some might also be interested in the Adams family's Where the Devil Roams (whose The Deeper You Dig got a release from Arrow). Does anyone recommend anything else?

[TechnicolorAcid]

Don’t know why this is in the Technical Issues thread but I’ve had positive experiences with Deaf Crocodile’s Hungarian catalogue so I’d say that Bubble Bath will be up my same level of enjoyment and possibly yours too if you like eccentric animation dealing with mature themes.

[swo17]

Don’t know why this is in the Technical Issues thread

Clearly I should not be allowed to operate heavy machinery today

[Finch]

Also, two Hong Kong titles, Man on the Brink from Kani which sounds interesting, and A Man called Hero at VS Archive.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

I haven’t seen A Man Called Hero, but a lot of those early CGI Hong Kong films are rough and are so unenjoyable. I can’t think of any other than those directed by Stephen Chow that I’ve enjoyed.

Man on the Brink is a wonderful surprise release. On the power of this and Alex Cheung’s Cops and Robbers, he should’ve been a bigger director, but never quite got there. While C&R has the sort of frenetic mood changes I love in Hong Kong cinema as it goes from crass humor, to serial killer horror, to police melodrama, MotB is far grimmer, more violent police thriller that looks forward to the films of Ringo Lam. Would pair very nicely with Lam’s City on Fire as they share many elements.