Ed's Review Dot Com

Gilbert Films

Kim Cattrall, Dustin Ingram, Brian Dennehy, Keith David, Jee Young Han, Daniel Yelsky, Jamie Tisdale, Jay Malack, Elizabeth Wright Shapiro, Tevis R. Marcum

Tobe (Dustin Ingram) is a lonely teen who loves 1980s soft-core “art movies”. His favorite actress is Monica Velour aka Linda Romanoli (Kim Cattrall). Tobe drives a Wienermobile and sells hot dogs. Finally he gets sick of that, so he wants to sell the Wienermobile, but the only interested buyer is from Indiana, but by coincidence Monica Velour lives a few miles from the man, so he agrees to a cross country journey to deliver the truck and meet his hero. His grandfather (Brian Dennehy) thinks the kid is nuts, but when Tobe finds her, she’s working in a low class strip joint and in serious trouble with her ex. Tobe tries to help the trailer-trash single mom win a contentious custody battle.

This is an interesting film. Toby’s a lot like Napoleon Dynamite in the way he acts. He’s so back woods that he doesn’t have any idea what he’s getting into. But the long hazardous journey makes him grow up quite a bit and the movie has a lot of heart. Kim Cattrall plays the aging B movie star really well, and gives us a dose of real life. Brian Dennehy has a small role, but he’s very funny. All in all, the humor is fun, and the movie is real. It’s a coming of age story, and it’s fun to watch Toby grow. This is a little film, but one worth watching out for. It was one of those that was completely missed by everyone that makes a great rental. Well acted and very interesting in the way it’s handled.

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Shamley Productions

Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, Vera Miles, John McIntire

Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is the clerk at a real estate company in Phoenix who has been a faithful employee for 10 years. But she’s in a relationship with a recently divorced man from San Francisco. Stealing a moment whenever he is in town on business, they want to get married, but he has so many bills he cannot give her any kind of life. A coincidence gives her the opportunity to steal $40,000.00 and she decides to run away with it. Since she was supposed to deposit the 40k on Friday night, nobody is going to miss it until Monday. This will give her a chance to get away with it and make the drive to San Francisco. But on the way, sleepy and simply worn out, she decides to stop at an out of the way motel run by a gentle but mysterious man named Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) who is under a lot of stress from a very angry invalid mother. Poor Marion has no idea what she’s dealing with.

Everyone knows the story of Psycho, but sometimes I love to pull out classic movies that my daughter has never seen. The main reason for choosing Psycho is not the story, because as I’ve said, the story is well known now. When Psycho was released, Hitchcock pulled out all the stops. As you will see in the preview Hitchcock doesn’t give away anything of the story, but merely introduces you to the famous set at Universal Studios where this was filmed. At the time this was shown, it was customary to come to the theater any time at all and watch the movie from the middle somewhere, and then stay until you got back to the place where you came in. This was an annoying way to watch some films, but it was the custom. No one paid any attention to when the movie actually started. A couple films restricted anyone from entering the theater during the final half hour, or before the final scene, but Hitchcock went all the way to require the theater to not admit anyone after the movie started. He realized that you have to watch it from the beginning to get the impact of the story. But this requirement in itself created a great deal of publicity to see what it was all about.

Psycho was shocking for its day. Plus the style and techniques of Hitchcock in this film is unbelievable. Any lover of film can appreciate the spectacular way he told the story. Every camera shot and angle was planned to the minutest detail. The famous shower scene was choreographed in hundreds of individual shots and is legendary in itself. This is a great film to be enjoyed in the magically restored “Collector’s Edition” and is something that is great to see again if it’s been years since you’ve seen it, and certainly not to be missed if you’ve never had the privilege.

One of the most fantastic horror/suspense films ever and one that changed the face of cinema forever. Classic Hitchcock and perhaps his greatest film.

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Imagine Entertainment, Internationale Filmproduktion Blackbird Dritte

Topher Grace, Anna Faris, Dan Fogler, Teresa Palmer, Chris Pratt, Michael Biehn, Lucy Punch, Michelle Trachtenberg, Michael Ian Black, Robert Hoffman

Take Me Home Tonight is a dramatic comedy set in the late 1980’s. Matt Franklin (Topher Grace) is a recent MIT graduate that has no idea where he’s going with his life. He quits his engineering job and works at Suncoast Video at the mall and has a crush on a girl from High School named Tori Frederking (Teresa Palmer). To impress her he goes to a wild Labor Day party and lies that he works for a big financial firm. Things go from bad to worse and Matt and his twin sister Wendy (Anna Faris), and his best friend get in all kinds of trouble as he learns the hard way the lessons of real life and growing up.

This is not a great film, but it’s not terrible either. The soundtrack is classic 80’s rock, and is very good. Also the feel of the film is late 80’s so if you’re nostalgic for that period, you’re going to love it. There are some really funny moments, and the trouble they get into is really far out there. But all in all it’s a romantic comedy and a coming of age story, and though it didn’t relate to me in a big way, I enjoyed watching it. There is a lot going for it, especially if you have a connection to that time period, so just because I wasn’t blown away by it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a chance if you think you’d like it. It was written by the writers of “That 70’s Show” and so it has the same kind of feeling and humor that the show has. Not a bad movie, and well worth a rental.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday August 23, 2011

Vortex

Gunnar Hansen, Jim Siedow, Marilyn Burns, Edwin Neal, Paul A. Partain, Teri McMinn, William Vail, John Dugan, John Henry Faulk

Sister Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) and her invalid brother Franklin Hardesty (Paul A. Partain)heard a news story about a cemetery in their “way out in the middle of nowhere” Texas town where they grew up that has had a lot of grave robberies. Someone is desecrating the graves. The siblings and 3 of their friends set out on a road trip, visiting their grandpa’s grave to see if it was vandalized. While their the visited their old house where they are hunted down and terrorized by a chainsaw wielding killer called Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) and his family of grave-robbing cannibals.

This is not a good film. But it is a must see film. The whole project cost $60,000 plus an additional $20,000 that they ran up after filming. The film grossed $31 million. But much more, it paved the way for all the slashers to come. Gunnar claimed he was paid $800.00 for his role. This is an absolute must see for any horror fan, as the film is so over the top disturbing and frightening, but much more is off screen and imagined that what is seen. The modern remake in 2003 is so much more high tech and gory, but this one is pure horror and shock. It was made by a group of people who loved the craft and did it for the love of movies. Surprisingly they made a lot of money from it.

Obviously by now, everyone knows the story of Leatherface. But I think it’s a great idea to go back and watch a 1974 classic horror film, just to admire the way they did their craft in those days. Also, check the IMDB.COM page for this film, as the trivia section itself is an amazing read. There are so many interesting facts about the real accidents and the problems in making this film that it’s amazing. And finally, not to burst anyone’s bubble, but it is widely held that this film is based on true events. It isn’t. The narration states that it’s based on events that happened AFTER the film was made. They admitted years and years ago that it was a made up story. The situation was that the director was stuck in a crowded hardware store one day, and had a thought about how he could clear out the store. Then he saw the chain saw display and a great idea was born!!! I’m not sure if this is the first film that stated in the opening that it was a true story that was totally made up, but it certainly wasn’t the last, that’s for sure! But it’s a true classic and worth watching again!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog