CultFlicks.net

Rating:

Review

Amores Perros is Spanish for “Love’s a Bitch, roughly, and follows a few interlocking stories about family, death, and dog fighting. The film is tied together by a car accident. For example, the victim is a woman who becomes paralyzed, the one who crashed into her is a boy in love with a girl he can’t have and makes money dogfighting is prize pet. The last story follows a vagrant, a homeless man who is as crazy as he is awesome. In essence, it is the car accident that begins the story and closes it, but it is how the characters came to the situation as well as how they deal with the reprecussions that makes this film. Charming is not quite the word I would use, as the events depicted are depressing and ruthless. Yet it is a punch in the stomach well deserved. Viewers need a good hit to shack them from the monotony and come to, possibly, realize what life is all about REALLY. Not bad for a cult film.

Reason to Watch

Well the movie certainly won’t cheer you up, bt its sheer rawness and gritty character depictions is worthy of watching. the structure of te film is also very unique and enthralling.

Context

Amores Perros is gritty, undoubtedly depressing, and builds sympathy for characters you outright should hate. Not every film can be Toy Story 2

Most Memorable Quote(s)

• Susana: You and your plans. You know what my grandmother used to say? If you want to make God laugh… tell Him your plans. 
• El Chivo: At the time, I thought there were more important things than being with you and your mom. I wanted to set the world right, and then share it with you. I failed, as you can see. 

What You Need to Get Through This Movie

A tissuebox, not for um..anything sexual, but for your waterfall of inevitable tears

Trivia

• A disclaimer stating that no animals were harmed in the making of the movie comes at the beginning instead of being buried in the credits. There are many depictions of animal violence, particularly around dogs
• “Negro”, the name “El Chivo” picks for his dog at the end of the movie is also the well-known nickname for the film’s director, Alejandro González Iñárritu. 
• This is considered part one of  Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s “death trilogy,” followed by 21 Grams and Babel starring Brad Pitt.

Educational Content

All female gangs are the toughest, don’t pretend they aren’t

Justification for Rating

The Warriors has some classic bad vs. bad vs. morally gray stories played out in an arena called New York City. It’s fresh, new- a 6 rating.

Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCOXqoqs54w&feature=fvst

Rating:

Review

1984 is wholly drowning in science-fiction oddities. Some of them fail miserably and others are quaint and retreaded, though sort of intriguing. Night of the Comet is unabashedly open to taking in influences from many mediums and genres, sort of crafting a romance story around a science-fiction tale, capping it with humor and drama alike. Night of the Comet isn’t particuarly good, but for what it does, you come to appreciation the seamlessness of making so many types of movies in one and having it turn less into a hodge podge mess and something not entirely pretentious. Night of the Comet is quiet for all its exaggerated tendencies, and the film comes and goes without making a huge splash, but a quiet simmer that will stick for some time. Like a slow kiss and not meaningless mediocre sex, Night of the Comet is pretty and interesting, and for sci-fi in the 80’s, that’s about as modest as it gets.

Reason to Watch

Night of the Comet does a lot right, and doesn’t focus on one thing to drive the characters through their silly story.

Context

The film’s charming elements are helped further by a story that actually sort of makes sense, something akin to a god-like impossibility in mid-80’s science-fiction realm.

Most Memorable Quote(s)

• Willy: You wouldn’t believe what we want from you. In your worst nightmare you wouldn’t believe. 
• Regina Belmont: C’mon Hector, the MAC-10 submachine gun was practically designed for housewives. 

What You Need to Get Through This Movie

A nice cup of coffee and your viewing glasses, this contradicts the absurdity with a little bit of wholesome goodness

Trivia

• The original working title for the film was Teenage Mutant Horror Comet Zombies.
• The Shopping Mall featured in Night of the Comet was the Sherman Oaks Galleria. The Galleria has been used for several movies including Terminator and Fast Times at Ridegmont High.

Educational Content

If famed gruesome horror/children’s film director Robert Rodriguez likes something, it’s probably good

Malls are creepy when empty

If Night of the Comet does something right, they remind you that Dawn of the Dead is a good movie

Justification for Rating

Unlike many cult films, Night of the Comet is a legitimate engrossing movie. it takes influences from many different sources, yet on its own, its a nice mix of many different things that work well together, as opposed to a blender of random items that make a chunky gross brown smoothie.

Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91xWXTIwTwM

Rating:

Review

With a title such as Tokyo Fist you may expect something akin to Kung Pow:Enter the Fist or a Bruce Lee cross-over flick, adorning more to comedy trite than ruthless violence. Tokyo Fist is unrelenting, gruesome, and merciless in its presentation. Sort of like The Passion of the Christ, except with less Jesus and more twenty-something Asian amateur boxers. Despite its violence, the film is drowning in melodramatic bullshit that would make a sixty-something American Lifetime move fan  roll her eyes. Yet if you can manage pass the drama, and there is a lot of it, you find some unrelenting sequences of pure pain and horror, where the two lead characters bash each other’s faces in, echoing the sentiments of the late 90’s flick, Fight Club. tokyo Fist is angry at something, maybe the actors, because the director truly run these kids through the ringer of what a face can handle.

Reason to Watch

For the girls, lots of shirtless ripped men. For the guys, these men beat the living fuck out of eachother. Win win.

Context

Tokyo Fist is the antithesis of visually charged spectacles of Japanese fighting culture. It’s like they took Rambo and Rocky, added a sprinkle of love quadrangle romance, added two Asian leads, and threw blood over everyone and everything.  Though Tokyo Fist seems to be trying to tell us something about violence and human nature, and I can’t quite pinpoint it. oh well, time to watch Rambo: First Blood Part 2 in 3-D for the umpteenth time.

Most Memorable Quote(s)

• Tsuda: At least I don’t have problems with staying awake anymore.

What You Need to Get Through This Movie

An empty stomach

Trivia

• This is director Shinya Tsukamoto’s second film, one that is just as unapologetic as his debut, Tetsuo.

Educational Content

If you punch someone’s face hard enough, their face will explode

Even people in Tokyo are lonely

Justification for Rating

The movie has a message, but it doesn’t drown out the simple fact that people beat the hell out of each other, and it looks painful and it’s simply brutal and there are consequences when it occurs in real life. But since this is Tokyo and that place is real far away, we can just pretend this is a crazy Japanese game show, so we fill no emotional or moral obligation to address anything the film has to say.

Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsCCQRqZNHA

Rating:

Review

I don’t think Santa Sangre was meant to be as weird as it is. Some movies try so hard to be odd, and it often comes across as phony or self-parody. Santa Sangre is the most non-intentionally weird move ever devised. It has nothing to do with Santa Claus (at least I don’t think) and more to do with talking fish and circuses. Santa Sangre utilized the flash-forward before Lost made it cool, and takes advantage of Down Syndrome illness more than any other film. The film is also intensely violent and absurd beyond any sort of literal understanding. Santa Sangre may be a huge metaophor for child abuse, but it also has enough circus tricks to fit in a Cirque De Soleil script. You can’t come to terms with the film’s oddities any more than you can understand why your mom insists on Santa Claus being real even in your twenties.

Reason to Watch

Jesus makes a cameo appearance. The real Jesus, so that is pretty cool or whatever.

Context

italy and Mexico don’t usually deprive such entertainment, more known for their stuffiness and their illegal immigrants respectively, but for one reason or another, Santa Sangre just sort of works, even if it isn’t really saying anything at all about anything we can understand.

Most Memorable Quote(s)

• Concha: Without me you are nothing. No one sees you and no one notices you. Just like your stupid hero.
• Concha: It’s always roosters or swans! You never see anything else in your ridiculous hallucinations. 

What You Need to Get Through This Movie

Let’s just be honest here and nothing except shrooms and an Amazon frog can really make you come to sense and preparation for this thing.

Trivia

• As a tribute to Mexican horror films, Santa Sangre includes a scene with masked wrestlers and a “superwoman” named La Santa.
• The line spoken during the death of the elephant (The Elephant is Dying) is used as the opening line of “What’s up with You” – a song by Eddie Murphy and Michael Jackson, of all combinations

Educational Content

You cannot atone for your sins by asking politely and sacrificing an animal

When a character hallucinates, even the smallest trivial problem is insurmountable

Justification for Rating

If senselessness is directly proportional to quality, a 7 will do perfectly here.

Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVdBqvIUnyw

Rating:

Review

What does a frustrated Shakespearean actor do, when he is consistently passed up for awards by a group of critics who simply can’t see his vision? Knock them off, of course, setting up elaborate schemes, taken from the Bard himself.

Reason to Watch

I suppose that Vincent Price chewing scenery is reason enough for many cult film fanatics, but for those who need more convincing, the film is actually quite well done. The acting is on par with the British horror films of the time, and Jigsaw could learn a few things from the imaginatively horrific fates the critics suffer. (Don’t ask about the dog)

Context

Vincent Price was a standard of 70’s British horror, and this is a perfect showpiece for his stage acting abilities.

Most Memorable Quote(s)

• You begin to resent an actor if you always have to give him bad notices.
• Critics are likely to make enemies, inspector. You can call it an occupational hazard.

What You Need to Get Through This Movie

This movie is best savored with a glass of red wine and a theater geek.

Trivia

Vincent Price met his wife Carol on set during the filming of this movie.

Educational Content

• Don’t try to get crazy hippies out of an abandoned building by yourself.

Justification for Rating

Great acting, great plot.. it makes for an enjoyable watching experience/