A typewriter case
containing plans for the atomic bomb gets stolen and eventually winds up
in the hands of two Cleveland area sisters working for the Nazis. But
the sisters get careless, and a two bit crook steals the case from under
their noses. Realizing their bosses will not be happy about this, the
sisters hire the Night and Day detective agency to get the case back,
while being careful not to divulge its true contents. As the gumshoes
investigate, bodies start to pile up. Will they get to the bottom of
the mystery in time? That about sums up the plot of ‘The Black Valise’
a valiant attempt by Lakewood, Ohio based Milroy Pictures to make a
retro film noir. The story is loosely based on real events, and much of
the story takes place in Lakewood and Cleveland’s west side, notably
Franklin Castle which functioned as a base of operations for Cleveland’s
Nazi party at one time.
Well, let’s start with the positive. If nothing
else, ‘The Black Valise’ has 10 times more ambition than most no budget
cinema I’ve seen. Rather than crank out yet another dumb horror movie
or T&A fest, the folks at Milroy decided to make a period film noir,
shot in black and white, no less. While there’s not a lot about the
visual style that’s noteworthy, the film is competently lensed and
edited, and despite being shot mostly on the modern day streets of
Lakewood, Ohio, the specific locations picked manage to adequately
convey the feeling that this movie is taking place in the WWII era. And
as an added bit of production value, somehow or other the filmmakers
managed to get real army vehicles for one scene, including tanks.
On the downside, however, the story drags at
several points. More screen time than necessary is taken on plot
elements that are really tangential to the main story. This has the
effect of making characters who are supposed to be the leads seem almost
like supporting players. The movie goes for a serious tone most of the
time, but it’s hard to take a story seriously when the two detectives on
the case are named Night and Day. There’s also an over reliance on
narration to move the plot along. Apparently this was done to give the
movie a period feel, as if it were a news story being read by Edward
Murrow, but it just didn’t work for me. Film is a visual medium; show,
don’t tell. And if you are going to use narration in a film it better
be compelling, which this isn’t. Finally, the movie just sputters out
at the end. According to producer/writer Robert Swanson, there was
originally another ending that went on too long and no one was happy
with. To salvage the movie, a different ending was conceived, but due
to budgetary problems not all of it could be filmed. The result is
we’re left with a title card telling us what happened. While I can
sympathize, as a viewer this anticlimactic conclusion is far from
satisfying.
I could point out other flaws, but considering the
budget it would be unfair to hold ‘The Black Valise’ to the same
standards as a Hollywood film. Movies like this are more about the
passion of the filmmakers than technical perfection, and I can’t help
but admire the effort that went into this. The movie is not without
some entertainment value, and given a tighter screenplay and a larger
budget I think the Milroy crew could probably do much better. While I
can’t recommend this for everyone, if you’re willing to overlook the
film’s shortcomings you can order a copy from
www.milroypictures.com/.
Faith No More – ‘You Fat Bastards/Who Cares a Lot?’
(2006, Rhino)
Directed by various
Rhino
has always been know as one of the best companies specializing in reissues
of classic albums. Lately they’ve been expanding into the video realm as
well, and the results are just as impressive. This 2 DVD set includes both
the 1990 live video ‘You Fat Bastards’, and ‘Who Cares A Lot?’, a collection
of music videos.
‘You Fat Bastards’ is a fine set from the band’s ‘The
Real Thing’ era and includes all but two of the tracks from that
breakthrough album. Vocalist Mike Patton is definitely one of the best
frontmen in modern rock, as he shows here, and the band is solid
throughout. It’s a shame that Faith No More’s popularity pretty much peaked
on this tour, as evidenced by the second DVD in this collection.
‘Who Cares A Lot?’ includes, as far as I know, every
video Faith No More ever made. Some of these I don’t even remember seeing
on MTV (and this was back in the day when MTV actually played music
videos). While many of these videos were considered ground breaking when
they first aired, they seem almost quaint compared to the multi million
dollar productions major label acts indulge in these days.
I always enjoyed ‘The Real Thing’ and especially ‘Angel
Dust’, but at the time of their original release ‘King For a Day, Fool For a
Lifetime’ and ‘Album of the Year’ didn’t really thrill me. So it was a
pleasant surprise to find the material included from those albums sounds
quite good to my ears now, enough so that I might have to give those albums
another chance.
All in all, this is a lot of bang for your buck. If
you’re already a fan of the band, this is a mandatory purchase. But even if
you’re just looking for a good introduction to Faith No More, this would
probably be as good a place as any to start. Hopefully Rhino continues
putting out more discs like this. (Bob Ignizio)
‘Funny
Man’ is a pretty decent little horror film. The acting and direction
are solid, and the special effects are excellent for a low budget film
from this time period (early nineties). There’s enough gore and
violence to satisfy most horror fans, but not so much as to turn off a
wider audience. It may not be the best horror movie ever made, but it’s
certainly as good if not better than a good deal of horror films
released by major studios in the early to mid nineties. So why is it
just now making its American debut?
There’s a short interview with Christopher Lee on
this disc (which is probably longer than his actual amount of screen
time). In it, Lee talks about the problems of the British film
industry. He points out that one big problem is that British films
often aren’t made with a broader, international (i.e. American) audience
in mind, thus making it harder to sell British films to other markets.
He then goes on to say that ‘Funny Man’ is one film that doesn’t fall
into that trap. As much as I admire Mr. Lee, I have to say he’s sadly
wrong on this point.
Although there are definite nods to the American
audience (one character is clearly modeled after Velma from ‘Scooby Doo’),
the film is also full of cultural references and slang that are
unfamiliar to most Yanks. Even the basis for the film’s killer, a
grotesque sort of Jester (played by Tim James), will be lost on anyone
not from the UK. Instead of a character from British folklore [thanks
to aelthric on the IMDB for making me aware of this], most American
viewers will see an amalgam of Freddy Kreuger and Beetlejuice.
Eventually ‘Shaun of the Dead’ would prove that a British horror-comedy
could play in the U.S., but the difference is that ‘Shaun’ is
much more universal.
None of this, of course, makes ‘Funny Man’ a bad
movie. It’s not a great one, either, but if you like American horror
films of the late eighties and early nineties and don’t mind getting a
taste of a different culture with your movie viewing experience, ‘Funny
Man’ should be just your cup of tea. It’s certainly better than most of
the ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’/’Friday the 13th’/’Halloween’
sequels that were being shat out like clockwork during that era.
The DVD from Subversive is up to their usual
standards of high quality and bang for the buck. The movie itself looks
as good as it can considering the budget, and the bonus features are
numerous and worthwhile. There’s the aforementioned interview with
Christopher Lee, a ‘Making of’ featurette, director’s commentary,
trailers, and the short film that ‘Funny Man’ was based on. In
addition, the disc comes with a booklet with more behind the scenes
tidbits, and perhaps most useful, a glossary of slang terms used in the
film. (Bob Ignizio)
‘Roulette’
is a remarkably well made low budget horror film with a solid cast. It
was made for only $500, but you’d never know it. The acting is also
very good, and directors Blair and Pitman show real promise both in
their visual style and in their handling of the cast. The premise is
sort of like a cross between 'Final Destination' and time travel movies
like ‘Donnie Darko’ and ‘Primer’. The rock songs on the soundtrack are
mixed too loud, and the dialogue is too low and muffled, but otherwise
the technical aspects of the movie are all solid.
Unfortunately, ‘Roulette’ doesn’t quite work for
me. According to the film’s website, most of ‘Roulette’ was improvised,
and it feels like it. I often complain that movie characters these days
are too underdeveloped, but this is the opposite extreme. The movie
just kind of meanders around for about 45 minutes, establishing key plot
points here and there, but mostly just allowing the actors to riff on
their characters. The directors utilize some showy visual techniques
during all this, and while that keeps this section of the movie from
becoming completely boring, I’m not sure if any of the techniques really
help tell the story.
Evenutally, we get to the meat of the story: a
game of Russian Roulette suggested by the character who believes in time
travel. He figures if anything goes wrong, he can use his theory to go
back in time and fix it. Something does go wrong, and the movie then
flashes forward to a year later (according the time travel theory in
this film, you have to be at the same place a year later at the same
time to go back). At this point, the film turns into a revenge from
beyond the grave story. Unfortunately, this section doesn’t build much
suspense or tension as characters are simply knocked off one after the
other in an almost perfunctory way.
I admire ‘Roulette’ more than I actually like it, I
think. Like I said, it’s very well made, and the idea is not a bad
one. Pacing is the real killer here, and I think if these guys had a
bigger budget and a fully written script they could remake this into
something much better. Even if ‘Roulette’ doesn’t get remade, I’ll be
interested in seeing what Pittman and Blair do next as they clearly have
talent. For more info, go to
www.badfritterfilms.com.
A typewriter case
containing plans for the atomic bomb gets stolen and eventually winds up
in the hands of two Cleveland area sisters working for the Nazis. But
the sisters get careless, and a two bit crook steals the case from under
their noses. Realizing their bosses will not be happy about this, the
sisters hire the Night and Day detective agency to get the case back,
while being careful not to divulge its true contents. As the gumshoes
investigate, bodies start to pile up. Will they get to the bottom of
the mystery in time? That about sums up the plot of ‘The Black Valise’
a valiant attempt by Lakewood, Ohio based Milroy Pictures to make a
retro film noir. The story is loosely based on real events, and much of
the story takes place in Lakewood and Cleveland’s west side, notably
Franklin Castle which functioned as a base of operations for Cleveland’s
Nazi party at one time. 
Rhino
has always been know as one of the best companies specializing in reissues
of classic albums. Lately they’ve been expanding into the video realm as
well, and the results are just as impressive. This 2 DVD set includes both
the 1990 live video ‘You Fat Bastards’, and ‘Who Cares A Lot?’, a collection
of music videos. 
‘Funny
Man’ is a pretty decent little horror film. The acting and direction
are solid, and the special effects are excellent for a low budget film
from this time period (early nineties). There’s enough gore and
violence to satisfy most horror fans, but not so much as to turn off a
wider audience. It may not be the best horror movie ever made, but it’s
certainly as good if not better than a good deal of horror films
released by major studios in the early to mid nineties. So why is it
just now making its American debut? 
‘Roulette’
is a remarkably well made low budget horror film with a solid cast. It
was made for only $500, but you’d never know it. The acting is also
very good, and directors Blair and Pitman show real promise both in
their visual style and in their handling of the cast. The premise is
sort of like a cross between 'Final Destination' and time travel movies
like ‘Donnie Darko’ and ‘Primer’. The rock songs on the soundtrack are
mixed too loud, and the dialogue is too low and muffled, but otherwise
the technical aspects of the movie are all solid. 