Just last night Carla and I watched Dog Soldiers. Pretty nifty, but I have a soft spot for such films. Low budget horror films that is. Cuz that's the kind of film I want to make. Considering the budget, this was a very nice looking little film. The werewolves were obviously men in suits, but I have yet to see a werewolf in a film that didn't look like a man in a suit. Except for that one about that American in London. That one looked like a big dog. The Heads of the wolves were quite well done, and that's the most important part. They're never onscreen for all that long anyway. They get the job done is what I'm trying to say. And they're not CGI, which is a plus in my books. Not that CGI always looks bad, but low budget CGI is usually not the way to go. Especially when it comes to hair or fur.
But enough about the werewolves, they're not the focus of the movie. "The werewolves aren't the focus of a werewolf movie?รข€� I hear you ask incredulously (and by you I mean no one). That's right, the real focus of the movie is the soldiers. The way they interact with each other, the way they react to the situation they're in: THAT"S the focus of this movie. And that's why this movie works. All the actors do a fine job. They come across like soldiers and like friends. I can't remember any of the actors' names off hand, but I liked them all. Cooper, Welles and Spoon in particular (even though Spoon is so named that in service of a fairly lame bit that nonetheless made me laugh). Spoon going Coo Coo crazy apeshit bananas on a wolf with a frying pan (Spoon had the pan, not the wolf. Although... the only thing more terrifying than a werewolf... is a werewolf... with a FRYING PAN!!! The only thing more terrifying than a werewolf with a frying pan... is an overlong parenthetical aside... with too many ellipses!!!)
The script is... okay. As a low budget flick, it wisely confines the bulk of the action to one main location. I don't know how to cleverly segue into the other thoughts I have about the script so the rest of this paragraph is going to be somewhat non-flowy. The surprise twist near the end is kinda lame and nonsensical. The bit right near the end, after the big kablooie was shot too dark and too close, so I'm not exactly sure what happened. Actually, those two points are about the only bad things I have to say about the script. Otherwise, it's pretty good. The characters don't do stupid things. Well, they do, but for non-stupid reasons. They act and react like normal people might, if put in the same situation. Oh yeah, one other slightly negative point: the film jumps around a lot, time-wise, near the beginning. Not that it's hard to follow; it's just kind of distracting. It settles down fairly quickly, so no biggie.
As I mentioned, bits of the film were too dark. Or shot too close. In addition, some of the editing (usually during the dark and tight portions of the movie), makes the action hard to follow. I don't know if these were stylistic choices or due to the tight budget, all I know is I asked, "What just happened?" on more than one occasion.
Still, all in all, I recommend Dog soldiers.
Best in Show = funny.
See? I can be succinct when I want to be. Also, I dig that Eugene Levy.
The Streetfighter. I'm not sure if there is a 'The' in the title, but I write it that way in the attempt to differentiate it from that Van Crap movie. I'm talking about the Sony Chiba 1974 classic. Hell yeah. I picked this bad boy up for five dollars, having never seen it, and it was SO worth the money. The music, the nonsensical plot, the dubbing, the makeup, the fights, the gore; these all add up to make one kick ass movie! Ass kickingest of all is Sony Chiba as Terry Tsurugi. He is the original bad motherfucker. He beats up chicks, forces himself on them and sometimes sells them into prostitution. He beats the shit out of anyone who even THINKS about getting in his way. He has no qualms about gouging people's eyes out or ripping out their throats. Sometimes, just for kicks, he'll rip their dicks off. Yeah, that's right, their dicks. And in between all this brutality he makes really weird faces and emits odd, odd noises. He's like Bruce Lee on crack. There is so much good stuff in this flick; I can't urge you enough to check it out.
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