Crash (1996)

David Cronenberg’s 1996 movie Crash, shot in Toronto, is based on J.G. Ballard’s 1973 book.

The movie starts with a car crash. James Ballard (James Spader) is involved in a crash in which a man is killed. The man’s wife Dr Helen Remington (Holly Hunter) survives.

Ballard and Helen are soon involved in a sexual relationship, the sexual electricity coming from their shared car crash experience.

They both notice something odd. After their crash there seems to be a lot more traffic on the roads.

Ballard meets Vaughan (Elias Koteas), a man obsessed by car crashes, and gets drawn into a strange circle of car crash enthusiasts. It’s not a cult but it is an obsession and it’s a sexual fetish. If driving a car is a sexual act then a car crash is the ultimate orgasm.

Ballard’s wife Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger) is drawn in as well.

Vaughan recreates famous car crashes such as the James Dean crash. Despite the use of stunt drivers it’s very very dangerous, which is why it’s exciting.

Gabrielle (Rosanna Arquette), one of Vaughan’s little circle, suffered such severe injuries in a car crash and has so many metal prosthetics that she seems almost cyborg-like. Ballard enjoys having sex with her because it’s almost like having sex with a machine-woman.

Ballard is being more deeply drawn in and Vaughan is becoming increasingly obsessed. It’s as if his 1963 Lincoln Continental convertible is now an extension of his body, or perhaps his body is now part of the machine.

These people are all discovering that they cannot get real sexual pleasure unless the sex act is linked with cars and car crashes.

All these people are strange to start with. There’s something oddly disconnected about them. It’s not like being involved in a car crash suddenly changes their lives. The car crashes just bring things into focus for them. Suddenly their sense of disconnectedness makes sense to them.

There are obvious thematic links to Cronenberg’s earlier Videodrome. That whole Long Live the New Flesh thing. In Crash as in Videodrome we see the birth of almost a new species with people radically changed by their interface with technology and machines. Their emotions are different. Their sexuality is entirely different and cannot be understood in terms of any of the traditional classifications. The body and the machine are one. When characters have sex in a car (which they frequently do in this movie) it’s not a man and a woman having sex. It’s a threesome with the car being the other partner. The car is not just a convenient place in which to have sex. The car is the essential element.

It would be a mistake to see this a psycho-sexual thriller or a psycho-sexual drama. It’s not really a psychological movie at all. It’s not exploring the psychology of the characters nor is it concerned with society in a straightforward way. It’s more of a philosophical movie. Cronenberg thought of it as an existentialist movie.

This is a science fiction movie and it could even qualify as cyberpunk. In fact I do consider it to be cyberpunk. Cyberpunk concerns itself with the interface between humans and machines and the effect that has on our humanness and Crash explores similar territory. Cyberpunk usually focuses on AIs and robots but when Ballard wrote his book in 1973 the internet, AIs and personal computers were not even thought of. Ballard focuses on cars instead.

Cronenberg maintains this focus and it’s interesting that there is not a single computer in the movie. Which I’m sure is deliberate. Ballard’s idea of cars and freeways modifying our bodies and our behaviour and our sexuality still worked in 1996 and it still works today.

The fact that it’s cars rather than robots gives the human-machine interface a more visceral edge, cars being more brutally machine-like and more obviously dangerous while at the same time being part of everyday life that we take for granted.

This is the sort of thing that suits James Spader perfectly so it’s no surprise that he’s excellent. Elias Koteas is effectively disturbing as Vaughan. Rosanna Arquette is terrific. I especially loved Deborah Kara Unger as Catherine Ballard. She’s so detached and disconnected which is exactly right for the part.

All the performances work because they’re all slightly cold and disengaged.

The visuals have a starkness which works extremely well. We really do feel that this is a world that is no longer quite the familiar world. It’s just subtly wrong.

Crash was hugely controversial. In terms of explicit content it’s very tame but the ideas upset some sensitive souls. J.G. Ballard loved the movie.

Crash is Cronenberg at his best. Very highly recommended.

The Criterion Blu-Ray includes an excellent audio commentary by Cronenberg. Cronenberg insists that he has zero interest in political messaging which increases my admiration for him considerably.

Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension was released in 1984. It was a spectacular box-office flop. It’s not hard to see why. It’s uber-geeky in a way that gave it no appeal whatsoever to mainstream audiences. It tries so hard to be cool and hip and edgy and clever that it becomes embarrassing. 

It wasn’t based on a comic book but it tries very hard to look like it was.

It’s an example of a film that was clearly made without any thought as to what the target audience was going to be. The budget was $17 million which was ridiculous for a movie that was only ever going to appeal to a tiny cult audience.

Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) is a kind of 80s Doc Savage - an all-round genius and superhero. He’s a top neurosurgeon and a brilliant particle physicist and he’s just incredibly good at everything.

The plot is complicated. Buckaroo Banzai has designed a jet car with which he wants to break the dimension barrier. He succeeds, after driving the car straight through a mountain.

There are space aliens from another planet or maybe they’re from another dimension. There are two warring factions among the aliens.

The saga really began in the 1930s, with an earlier attempt to break the dimension barrier. And with space aliens landing in New Jersey where they brainwashed Orson Welles.

There’s a mad scientist, Dr Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow) locked up in a mental hospital but he escapes and is out for revenge and he also wants to break the dimension barrier.

All of the aliens are named John.

Penny Priddy (Ellen Barkin) gets mixed up in all this when she catches Buckaroo’s nightclub act. Yes, he has a band as well. They’re musicians and also scientists and junior-grade super-heroes. Penny reminds Buckaroo of his late wife.

Penny ends up in lots of trouble with the aliens and of course she ends up being held captive. There’s lots of running around. There are fistfights and gunfights. The aliens look human unless you have a special device that allows you to see their true form. Buckaroo has of course invented such a device.

The plot spins more and more out of control.

That’s not necessarily a huge problem. This is trying to be madcap comic book-style science fiction adventure romp and it doesn’t need to make any actual sense.

This is a movie that really isn’t sure what it’s trying to do. Is it trying to be a spoof? Maybe a spoof of geek culture? In any case it isn’t the least bit funny.

A major weakness is the casting. Peter Weller simply does not have the necessary charisma. The supporting cast includes Jeff Goldblum who would have been a far better choice to play Buckaroo.

John Lithgow yells and babbles a lot. It becomes very tiresome very quickly.

Ellen Barkin is OK but her part is disastrously underwritten and she and Peter Weller have no chemistry at all.

The special effects are very crude but almost certainly deliberately so and deliberately meant to be jokey. This film is pushing very hard for a comic-strip feel and it does succeed in that aim. The visuals are crazy and goofy but fun and they’re what I like most.

Despite its egregious flaws I couldn’t bring myself to actively dislike it. It fails in an entertaining very 80s way. It’s an oddity but if you have copious quantities of beer and popcorn on hand you might enjoy it. Imagine Earth Girls Are Easy without the laughs.

It looks nice on Blu-Ray.

Leviathan (1989)

Leviathan, directed by George P. Cosmatos and released in 1989, was part of the “terror in the deep” science fiction-horror sub-genre that flourished briefly around that time. 

It came out the same year as DeepStar Six (1989) and it has to be said that DeepStar Six is by far the better movie.

Leviathan is an Alien rip-off and it doesn’t even pretend to be anything else. If you’ve always wanted to see an Alien rip-off but set underwater then this is your movie. OK, there are elements borrowed from other movies such as The Thing but the core of this movie is Alien.

Leviathan was an Italo-American co-production, shot mostly in Italy.

The action takes place in a mining facility known as Shack 7, deep beneath the sea. Really deep. As in 16,000 feet deep.

Geologist Steven Beck (Peter Weller) is in charge. He’s not sure if he’s suited to being in command and his crew isn’t sure either. The crew of eight is the collection of misfits you expect in a movie like this. They have three days of a three-month contract to go and they really are fed up and there is some tension.

They have super high tech diving suits that are more like miniature diving vessels than conventional diving suits.

One crew members falls off an underwater cliff. He survives, and makes an extraordinary discovery. It’s a wrecked ship. The name of the ship is Leviathan and it’s obviously Russian. He salvages a chest from the wreck and that turns out to be a big mistake.

The surprise comes when the crew of Shack 7 do a computer check. The Russians are adamant that the Leviathan has not been lost at sea, and in fact there should be no wrecked ships of any kind in this vicinity.

There’s something else odd that suggests something surprising about the ship’s fate.

Of course there is something very very bad aboard that wrecked ship.

Beck has been in contact with his boss on the surface. We know as soon as she opens her mouth that we are dealing with an Evil Girlboss who would sell her own mother down the river to advance her career.

Soon the crew of Shack 7 find themselves confronting unthinkable horrors, and being trapped in an undersea complex with unthinkable horrors is no fun at all.

While, unlike Alien, it doesn’t have the input of the visual genius of H.R. Giger it still looks reasonably impressive. The undersea mining complex looks high tech but just a bit grungy. Wisely this is not overdone. Shack 7 doesn’t look like a scrap heap, it just looks like a place where people actually live and work. It’s not brightly lit but the shadows and darkness are not overdone.

The special effects are serviceable enough. The diving suits are very cool.

It’s meant to be exciting and scary, and it is. It’s a scary movie where people are trapped and cannot escape and that’s usually an effective trope. And they don’t fully comprehend the nature and extent of the threat.

It’s generally well-executed and well-acted. Leviathan is more of an old-fashioned drive-in movie than an 80s blockbuster and perhaps critics expected too much of it. It does what it sets out to do and does it pretty well. And personally I love underwater adventures and thrillers. Recommended.

Leviathan looks good on Blu-Ray.

I’ve also reviewed DeepStar Six (1989).

I’ve reviewed other George P. Cosmatos movies and they’re a mixed bag but generally enjoyable. The Cassandra Crossing (1976) and Escape to Athena (1979) have an off-kilter charm and Cobra (1986) is of course a masterpiece.

The Haunted Castle (1969)

The Haunted Castle is a gothic horror movie made by Japan’s Daiei Studio in 1969. It was directed by Tokuzô Tanaka. It’s included in the Radiance Films Daiei Gothic volume 2 Blu-Ray boxed set.

The setting is the 18th century, during the Tokugawa Shogunate. Almost all the action takes place in the castle, Saga Castle, occupied by Lord Nabeshima.

This film belongs to the fascinating bakeneko or “ghost cat” or “shape-shifting cat” genre. Yes, it’s an entire genre in both Japanese folklore and Japanese gothic horror cinema. And yes, I could easily become obsessed by this genre.

And, fascinatingly, I believe this was director Tokuzô Tanaka’s second “ghost cat” movie, the first having been made in 1958 (and also for Daiei Studio).

The Haunted Castle is based on a legend which, as in so many such cases, was widely believed to have its origins in actual events. Shôzaburô Asai wrote the screenplay,

The Ryuzoji clan was robbed of its lands and wealth by the scheming Lord Nabeshima (Kôichi Uenoyama). The blind Matashichiro Ryuzoji (Akihisa Toda) and his sister Sayo (Mitsuyo Kamei) now live on a small stipend.

Matashichiro is devoted to his pet cat Tama. This will become important.

Now Lord Nabeshima wants Sayo as one of his concubines. Matashichiro refuses to allow it. This refusal will lead to the deaths of both Matashichiro and his sister.

Before she does Sayo remembers a legend concerning cats and vengeful spirits. There is a way that Tama can exact vengeance on Sayo’s behalf.

The feline campaign of revenge begins.

The major weakness here is that some of the special effects involving the cat are rather feeble for fortunately Tanaka is smart enough to make these sequences extremely brief.

This is a movie that relies on moody cinematography and a general atmosphere of subtle menace rather than on gore. There is some gore but it’s not the dominating element.

It was shot in colour but it looks dark and shadowy. The action takes place almost entirely at night.

The movie also relies on some very clever set design. We never really get a film sense of the layout of the castle and this is undoubtedly deliberate. There are lots of shots of corridors but we’re never quite sure where they’re leading to.

Often we hear movement rather seeing it. Mostly we hear the cat but without seeing it.

And there’s something else going on. This is not just a demonic cat. This is a shape-shifting vengeful cat spirit.

Fear stalks the corridors of Saga Castle but no-one is quite sure what it is that they have to fear. There have been gruesome but inexplicable killings.

No-one trusts anyone else. That ghost cat may have assumed human form.

As with most Japanese gothic horror the makeup effects are impressive.

And the lapping of blood is nicely creepy.

Japanese gothic horror films have a flavour of their own and The Haunted Castle is a solid example of the breed. Recommended.

The Radiance Films Blu-Ray transfer looks lovely. There are three movies in this set. The Haunted Castle comes with a few reasonably interesting extras.

I’ve reviewed the other two movies in this set - The Demon of Mount Oe (1960, also directed by Tokuzô Tanaka) and Ghost of Kasane Swamp (1970).

Nemesis (1992)

Nemesis, released in 1992, was apparently the first film in an entire franchise the existence of which I had never suspected. The first four films were all directed by Albert Pyun so you know that while they might not be art they will action-packed and exciting. This review concerns the first movie in the series.

This is a dystopian cyberpunk science fiction film with definite post-apocalyptic overtones. Civilisation has not collapsed but it has descended into violent semi-barbarism.

It begins in L.A. in 2027. The city is not quite a hellscape, but close.

We are introduced to LAPD counter-terrorist cop Alex Rain (Olivier Gruner). He’s in the middle of a running battle with a terrorist cell led by a chick named Jared (Marjorie Monaghan). 

Several thousand rounds of small arms ammunition get expended and lots of stuff gets blown up before Alex is overcome. He’s been shot countless times and he’s lost a few limbs but he’s a cyborg and once they find him the LAPD will have him put back together again.

Jared had apparently been his girlfriend and he feels that she betrayed him.

He’s totally disillusioned but the police commissioner tells him he’s needed for another mission. He doesn’t have much choice - they put a bomb in his heart so if he doesn’t co-operate he’ll be blown to pieces in three days.

And the mission involves Jared. She’s stolen a computer disk that has to be retrieved before she passes it on to another terrorist faction.

After an interlude in Brazil he finds himself in Java. And meets up with Jared’s pal Julian (Deborah Shelton).

The storyline is a bewildering series of double-crosses but there’s so much insane action you won’t fret too much about the plot.

There’s clearly a kind of war between those who embrace cyborgisation and information technology and those who oppose it. In this society it seems that the battle is all but lost - cyborgs are everywhere and it’s impossible to visually identify them as cyborgs. There are also personality uploads (an idea that was hugely popular in 80s/90s cyberpunk).

And since virtually all the characters are cyborgs or androids it’s no use shooting them once, or three or four times. To make sure it’s best to shoot them a couple of hundred times. That at least slows them down a bit.

I like Olivier Gruner’s performance as a man who is just tired of everything and no longer really believes in anything. He’s not an obviously charismatic hero and he no longer wants to be a hero but he keeps bouncing back.

The locations are terrific and Pyun uses them to their best advantage.

Pyun knew how to do action scenes. He goes insanely over-the-top but it works. You can try counting the explosions but you won’t be able to - they just keep coming.

There’s one brief nude scene but this is an action movie and that is its entire focus.

I’m starting to like Albert Pyun’s movies. Alien from L.A. (1988) is goofy but Cyborg (1989) is truly excellent post-apocalyptic cyberpunk.

I’m quite fond of 80s/90s post-apocalyptic sci-fi in general, with Hardware (1990) being a bit of a favourite.

Nemesis is a wild ride and a thoroughly enjoyable one. Highly recommended.

Nemesis looks great on Blu-Ray (my copy is the Spanish all-region disc).

Death Packs a Suitcase (1972)

Death Packs a Suitcase (Der Todesrächer von Soho) is a 1972 krimi directed by Jess Franco. The krimis were adapted from the novels of Edgar Wallace which were massively popular in Germany,

The krimi genre kicked off in 1959 and in the 60s it was one of the mainstays of the German film industry. Rialto Studio made more than thirty of these movies. When rival studio CCC decided they wanted to get into the act they had a problem. They didn’t have the rights to Wallace’s novels. They solved that problem very cleverly by buying the rights to the novels of Wallace’s son Bryan Edgar Wallace who was at the time a successful thriller writer. CCC really only wanted the right to use the titles and the author’s name and their adaptations had little in common with the books. In this case, almost nothing in common.

The setting is London and one of the great things about the krimis is that they’re set in England but it’s an imaginary England based mostly on old British movies and detective novels.

There’s been a series of murders. In each case the victim finds his suitcase mysteriously packed. This is a tactic designed to terrify the victim - he knows he is now next on the murder list.

The murder weapon is a knife, thrown with uncanny accuracy.

Inspector Ruppert Redford of Scotland Yard (Fred Williams) gets some advice from his friend, the famous crime writer Charles Barton (Horst Tappert) and Barton plays a major part in the events to come.

Dr Bladmore (played by krimi legend Siegfried Schürenberg) always seems to be at hand when the murders take place.

There are several glamorous women and we cannot be sure which ones will turn out to be dangerous and treacherous but we’re confident that at least one will fall into that category.

This being a krimi there’s a comic relief character. In the 60s such a role would have been played by Eddi Arendt but in this case we have Luis Morris as news photographer Andy Pickwick and the good news is that he is genuinely amusing, he isn’t annoying and he has an actual plot function.

The plot is convoluted but don’t let that worry you. The krimi genre is like the giallo - what matters is that the plot should be outrageous and twisted. Despite what some people will tell you this movie’s plot does make sense.

The brisk pacing helps.

Franco made a whole bunch of lighthearted fun crime/adventure/spy romps in the late 60s and early 70s. You can call them Franco Lite but it’s something he enjoyed and he did have a flair for it.

This is, quite seriously, a visually dazzling movie. There’s hardly a scene that is shot in a dull conventional manner. Franco is constantly looking for ways to make things look interesting, with clever use of the wide-angle lens and camera angles (and especially low-angle shots) that make sets look slightly distorted and menacing and claustrophobic.

This does not come across as gimmicky - it’s a very valid and effective approach in a krimi. Krimis were heavily style-oriented and this is a very stylish movie.

Outdoor shots look misty and hazy which is of course what a German audience would think England looks like and it adds a slightly spooky vibe which works.

Fred Williams makes a likeable charismatic hero. The cast members are pretty good overall.

Death Packs a Suitcase is a very pleasant surprise. This is top-tier Franco and it’s hugely enjoyable. Highly recommended.

The Kino Lorber Blu-Ray release is excellent. Incidentally the 4:3 aspect ratio is correct: that’s how the movie was shot.

I’ve reviewed Bryan Edgar Wallace’s Death Packs a Suitcase. And I’ve reviewed lots of krimis. The Red Circle (Der rote Kreis, 1960) is a fine early example. Another late krimi worth seeing is Umberto Lenzi’s Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972), a kind of krimi/giallo hybrid.

The Key (La chiave, 1983)

The Key (La chiave) is a 1983 erotic/romantic drama written and directed by Tinto Brass.

After his nightmarish experiences in the 70s with Salon Kitty and Caligula Brass decided simply to go his own way. He made the movies he wanted to make and he made them the way he wanted to make them. The movies he wanted to make were erotic movies and as a result he has never received the critical respect he deserves. 

And of course critics in the English-speaking world find it impossible to comprehend that erotic movies can be real movies.

A pity, since Tinto Brass made fascinating intelligent perceptive erotic movies with some real emotional depth.

It is Venice in 1939. Nino Rolfe (Frank Finlay) is an art historian. He has been married to Teresa (Stefania Sandrelli) for twenty years. They have a daughter, Lisa (Barbara Cupisti). Lisa has a boyfriend, Laszlo (Franco Branciaroli).

Much to Nino’s dismay Teresa has always been sexually inhibited.

Nino keeps a diary, recording his sexual obsessions. He leaves the key where Teresa will find it. He wants her to read it, and she does.

Teresa begins keeping a diary as well. She wants Nino to read it, which he does.

There is adultery in this movie but what drives the plot is the thought of adultery. Nino knows that there is an attraction between Teresa and Laszlo. He imagines them together. The thought excites him. Teresa knows that this excites Nino and this in turn excites her.

Nino’s jealousy arouses him. This also in turn excites Teresa.

Nino takes nude photographs of Teresa while she sleeps and gets Laszlo to develop and print them. He makes sure that Teresa discovers the photographs.

Lisa knows that these things are going on. Nino, Teresa, Lisa and Laszlo are all complicit in a complex game of deceptions and betrayals and jealousies and suspicions. They are all to some extent willing participants in this game.

Nino earns extra money by issuing phoney authentications for fake paintings - another layer of deception.

Voyeurism is a vey obvious theme in this movie, made more obvious by Brass’s love of mirror shots and sometimes mirror shots within mirror shots. Everything is a reflection of a reflection of reality and maybe what seems to be the reality is a deception as well.

The reading of each other’s diaries by Nino and Teresa is another form of voyeurism.

It’s also a movie about fantasies, and about the way the things we imagine are more exciting than the things we see.

These are people who behave badly but they have their reasons. They are trying to understand their desires and their emotions. In the process people can get hurt but this is not a movie that sees sex as a destructive force. It also doesn’t present voyeurism as destructive.

This is a softcore movie but it goes way beyond anything you would get away with in an American softcore movie. It’s a movie for grown-ups. Tinto Brass made erotic movies that take human erotic desires seriously.

Brass’s movies are very Italian. He has a great love for Italian culture but he has always been relatively uninterested in the Rome of the Swinging 60s or the Milan of the decadent glamorous 80s. He loves the old Italy. This movie takes place just before the outbreak of the war, a war that would destroy the world as it then existed or at least transform it into something unrecognisable. This adds a touch of poignancy which is found in so many of his movies.

The Key is Brass in top form. Highly recommended. It looks great on Blu-Ray.

I’ve reviewed quite a few of his movies. Monella (1998) is my favourite but Miranda (1985) and The Voyeur (1994) are also highly recommended.