This
is a well made, often entertaining documentary on Cleveland Browns
fans. If you’re even less knowledgeable about football than I am, you
probably need to know that the Browns are best known for raising the
hopes of fans only to utterly crush them by the end of the season.
Then, of course, there was the indignity of long time team owner Art
Modell moving the Browns to Baltimore, where they were rechristened The
Ravens and suddenly started winning games and championships. Thanks to
outraged Cleveland fans, the city got to keep the Browns name and a new
team was put together. In true Cleveland fashion, the new Browns were
just as bad as the old ones.
So why, despite disappointing season after
disappointing season, do Browns fans continue to rabidly support their
team? I’m not sure this documentary really answers that question.
Heck, I’m not even sure there is a definitive answer. But we at least
get local celebrities like Michael Stanley, Big Chuck & Lil’ John, and
Dick Goddard offering their opinions. We also see the illness is not
confined to Cleveland, or even the U.S. Believe it or not, there’s a
group of British Browns fans who get together to watch the games.
While I liked this film, it does have its
shortcomings. Mainly, a little more background information about the
history of the Browns and Cleveland itself would have been nice. As it
stands, ‘Bleeding Orange and Brown’ just sort of assumes you know
certain things about the team’s history. If you lived in northeast Ohio
for most of your life, you’ve probably picked most of this background
information up by osmosis, even if you’ve never watched a Browns game in
your life. If you’re not from Northeast Ohio and/or not a Browns fan,
however, you might feel a little left out. (Bob Ignizio)
‘The
Gardener’ is an oddball independent horror movie from the early seventies
that has a few things going for it: swinging seventies ambience, cool
soundtrack, good cinematography, and generally decent performances. There’s
also the germ of a good idea involving an allegory for Hades and Persephone,
but it gets kind of muddled by attempts to move the film into more of an
exploitation direction despite the fact that no one involved really seems to
have felt comfortable with that. Writer/director James Kay clearly started
out with a unique vision of the story he wanted to tell, and yet somewhere
along the way he wound up second guessing himself. The end result is a film
that falls halfway between exploitation and subtle horror, and doesn’t
really satisfy on either level. To be completely blunt, this is one dull
movie. On top of that, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, either.
The merits of the actual film aside, there’s no doubt
that Subversive Cinema has done an amazing job with this DVD. The film
transfer itself looks great for a largely forgotten independent flick from
the seventies. Maybe a little bit on the reddish side, but overall pretty
good for a film of this era. What makes this disc worth watching are the
extras. There are two separate documentaries about the film. ‘Planting the
Seeds of Evil’ features present day interviews with the cast and crew, and
is amazingly candid in showing how disappointed everyone is with the final
product. ‘Million Dollar Dream’ was made seven years after the original
release of ‘The Gardnener’ and gives a lot of interesting background on
distribution and promotion of independent films in the seventies and early
eighties. There’s also two commentary tracks (one with just the director,
one with the director and Joe Dallesandro) and even a set of lobby card
reproductions and a movie poster. So despite the fact that the movie is
less than stellar, I kind of feel inclined to recommend ‘The Gardener’ if
(but only if) you’re a serious fan of seventies horror and exploitation
films. (Bob Ignizio)
I
let Alexadre Aja’s raw energy and wild gory abandon win me over in his
debut ‘High Tension’ despite a twist ending that left many viewers
angry. It wasn’t a perfect film, but I felt the good outweighed the
bad. So while I normally dread remakes, I had some hope for this one.
Sadly, that hope turned out to be unwarranted. ‘The Hills Have Eyes’
2006 is about as lame as remakes get. The energy and willingness to go
for the gore that I liked about ‘High Tension’ are still in evidence,
but so is the disregard for logic. You could excuse that in ‘High
Tension’ because of the nature of the twist, but here we’re supposed to
buy into the reality of the situation. Wes Craven knew exactly how to
pull that off in his low budget original version. Aja doesn’t have a
clue.
The
main problem is what Roger Ebert refers to as “the idiot plot”, which
more or less boils down to, “A plot that requires all the characters to
be idiots.” How else do you explain an ex-cop who wastes all his
bullets firing into the darkness, or characters who turn their backs on
fallen adversaries without making sure they’re really dead? Everyone in
the audience I saw this with was groaning when that second example came
into play. You know what’s scary? When the protagonists of a horror
film are smart and capable and act that way at all times, and yet we
still believe they’re in danger. Hell, as long as the protagonists
don’t act like complete dipshits I’m reasonably happy. If all I want is
to watch morons get skewered there’s 11 ‘Friday the 13th’
movies, and at least they have the decency not to try passing themselves
off as serious horror. (Bob Ignizio)
Hmmm.
Not sure how I feel about this one. In many ways this is a bold and
original film working in a tired genre, the serial killer movie.
‘Katiebird’ avoids most of the clichés we’ve come to expect from these
kind of flicks, and on top of that has a visual style all it’s own. You
know how a lot of seventies movies (especially DePalma flicks) would do
the split screen thing? ‘Katiebird’ doesn’t just split the screen, it
cuts it into 3 or 4 pieces and arranges the bits in interesting ways.
Is that cool or annoying? Well, a little bit of both.
The basic story is told in flashback as the adult
Katiebird (Helene Udy) tells her lover/psychiatrist (Todd Gordon) about
how she became a serial killer under the tutelage of her father (Lee
Perkins). Writer/director Justin Paul Ritter has some good ideas and
delivers some excellent shots, but the plot seems like a 30 minute short
stretched to feature length. Also the multiple frame shots, while
interesting at first, were used so much they started to get on my
nerves.
Bottom line, though, I think Ritter is a talent to
watch. He’s a director with balls and talent, and once he learns to
focus that talent a little more watch out. As it is, flaws and all,
‘Katiebird’ is still a mostly engaging film that I think horror fans
will appreciate. Plenty of gore and sadism, but there’s also some depth
to the film. There’s also plenty of depth to this DVD. Lots of bonus
features (commentary, trailers, behind the scenes stuff) and even a CD
of the soundtrack. (Bob Ignizio)
This
is a well made, often entertaining documentary on Cleveland Browns
fans. If you’re even less knowledgeable about football than I am, you
probably need to know that the Browns are best known for raising the
hopes of fans only to utterly crush them by the end of the season.
Then, of course, there was the indignity of long time team owner Art
Modell moving the Browns to Baltimore, where they were rechristened The
Ravens and suddenly started winning games and championships. Thanks to
outraged Cleveland fans, the city got to keep the Browns name and a new
team was put together. In true Cleveland fashion, the new Browns were
just as bad as the old ones. 
‘The
Gardener’ is an oddball independent horror movie from the early seventies
that has a few things going for it: swinging seventies ambience, cool
soundtrack, good cinematography, and generally decent performances. There’s
also the germ of a good idea involving an allegory for Hades and Persephone,
but it gets kind of muddled by attempts to move the film into more of an
exploitation direction despite the fact that no one involved really seems to
have felt comfortable with that. Writer/director James Kay clearly started
out with a unique vision of the story he wanted to tell, and yet somewhere
along the way he wound up second guessing himself. The end result is a film
that falls halfway between exploitation and subtle horror, and doesn’t
really satisfy on either level. To be completely blunt, this is one dull
movie. On top of that, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, either. 
I
let Alexadre Aja’s raw energy and wild gory abandon win me over in his
debut ‘High Tension’ despite a twist ending that left many viewers
angry. It wasn’t a perfect film, but I felt the good outweighed the
bad. So while I normally dread remakes, I had some hope for this one.
Sadly, that hope turned out to be unwarranted. ‘The Hills Have Eyes’
2006 is about as lame as remakes get. The energy and willingness to go
for the gore that I liked about ‘High Tension’ are still in evidence,
but so is the disregard for logic. You could excuse that in ‘High
Tension’ because of the nature of the twist, but here we’re supposed to
buy into the reality of the situation. Wes Craven knew exactly how to
pull that off in his low budget original version. Aja doesn’t have a
clue. 
Hmmm.
Not sure how I feel about this one. In many ways this is a bold and
original film working in a tired genre, the serial killer movie.
‘Katiebird’ avoids most of the clichés we’ve come to expect from these
kind of flicks, and on top of that has a visual style all it’s own. You
know how a lot of seventies movies (especially DePalma flicks) would do
the split screen thing? ‘Katiebird’ doesn’t just split the screen, it
cuts it into 3 or 4 pieces and arranges the bits in interesting ways.
Is that cool or annoying? Well, a little bit of both. 