JIM AND ANDY: THE GREAT BEYOND (2017) ****

Milos Forman’s Man on the Moon is one of the most unsung dramas in recent memory.  If anything, I hope Jim and Andy:  The Great Beyond will give viewers a chance to go back and rediscover that wonderful film.  If you ever wanted to know how Jim Carrey transformed himself into Andy Kaufman, look no further.  This is a fascinating documentary of Carrey's Method acting.  By staying in character throughout the entire shoot, it caused friction behind the scenes between him and members of the crew.  It would've been one thing if Carrey had been playing an ordinary guy.  Andy Kaufman was anything but.

The film is essentially comprised of Carrey reminiscing about the filming while we see behind the scenes footage of him running wild on set.  We’re not talking about any old “making of” documentary either.  This is some unprecedented stuff.  It’s intimate, personal, and challenging, which helps to blur the line between real and reel.  

Take for example how Jim, as Andy, mercilessly taunts wrestler Jerry “The King” Lawler.  Even when Lawler confides that in real life, he and Andy were good friends and had a respectful relationship, Jim refuses to back down, which causes tension in between takes.  Finally, they come to blows and Carrey has to be taken out by ambulance.  

The funniest moments come when Carrey is dressed up as Kaufman’s aggressive, insulting alter ego, Tony Clifton.  The scene where he busts in to Amblin’s offices demanding to see Steven Spielberg is a riot.  Even better is the part when Clifton crashes a party at the Playboy Mansion.  I’d like to think somewhere Kaufman was smiling.

Even though Carrey’s dedication to his craft ruffled some feathers, it had an oddly healing effect for some of Kaufman’s family members.  Carrey interacted with them as if he was the real Andy; giving them all a sense of closure.  Like Kaufman’s work, there’s a bit of heart to go along with the madness.

Carrey himself proves to be a fascinating interview subject.  He is shockingly honest and forthright and offers a lot of insight into his career and personal life.  Even if you’re a casual fan of either man, you really owe it to yourself to check this out.  It’s one of the best documentaries of the year.

AKA:  Jim and Andy:  The Great Beyond:  Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton.  

CITY RATS (1986) **

A guy takes his kid to the amusement park and afterwards, while getting a snack from a roadside stand, an undercover cop hits the boy with his car.  Since the cop is well-connected, no charges are filed.  Outraged, the father slugs him and winds up going to jail for a long time.  Meanwhile, his now homeless kid joins up with a bunch of sewer-dwelling killer children who roam the streets in packs and stab hapless passersby for their money.  When his father is released from prison, he sets out to find his long-lost son.

This is a really weird movie.  It partly plays like a killer kid movie while another aspect tackles the corrupt Mexican police and prison systems.  Don’t be fooled by the fact that this flick makes your typical Mexican prison look like an ordinary parking garage.  Looks can be deceiving, especially when said prison is filled with guards who can’t wait to hook car batteries up to your gonads. 

The scenes where the killer sewer-dwelling children accost and murder innocent people are hit-and-miss.  Luckily, there are plenty of explosions in the third act to keep you awake.  When something blows up, it blows up good.  Unfortunately, the sound was so poor that most of the dialogue is unintelligible. I'm willing to give it a mulligan though based on the explosions alone.  Even then, you have to put up with a lot of long, dull stretches in between the good stuff.

SAVAGE DOG (2017) ***

Scott Adkins is a prisoner in ‘50s Indochina who fights in jungle boxing matches for the warden’s amusement.  When he is paroled, he goes to work at Keith David’s bar as a bouncer.  Eventually, he gets roped back into fighting for money.  When David loses a bet, the thugs kill him and take his bar.  They also come THIS CLOSE to killing Adkins’ girlfriend.  That of course sends Scott on a bloody warpath for revenge.

From the outset, there’s nothing really remarkable about Jesse V. Johnson’s Savage Dog.  I mean you’ve seen this type of scenario played out hundreds of times before and Johnson does little to distinguish it from the various other actioners.  The first half is unimaginatively ordinary in just about every way and I found myself sinking into my seat in dismay at around the halfway mark.

That all changed once Adkins rose from his grave and set out to get revenge.  It’s here where Savage Dog turns into something truly special. The scene where Adkins hacks off a guy's head with a machete, strolls into a bar, and nonchalantly places the head on the bar is some of the best badass acting he's ever done. From then on, things get even gorier. Hands are lopped off and faces get blown off in a hail of gunfire and grenade shrapnel. 

By the time Adkins ditches the machete in favor of his fists, things really get into gear.  The scene where Adkins goes toe to toe with Cung Le is solid, but the finale where Scott squares off against Marko Zaror is incredible.  I was literally standing and cheering by the end.  This fight might be even better than their brawl in Undisputed 3, which is about as high of praise as one can get.

So, if you can get past the first forty-five minutes, you'll be treated to some kickass fun.  Even the usually magnetic Keith has trouble carrying the clunky first half.  Just stay with it though.  Once Savage Dog gets savage, it’s savage af.

MY SUCKY TEEN ROMANCE (2011) **

A bunch of dorky teens gather at a science fiction convention.  Paul (Patrick Delgado) is a meek grocery store clerk who was recently bitten by a vampire.  He thinks the convention will be the perfect place to blend in while he waits to bite his first potential victim.  Paul meets the adorkable Kate (Elaine Hurt) and they instantly hit it off.  When he leans in for a goodnight kiss, he accidentally bites her on the neck.  (Awkward!)  Kate then calls on her geeky friends, who are all fans of horror movies, to help her find a way to reverse her vampire curse.

My Sucky Teen Romance makes a lot of easy jokes at Twilight’s expense.  It also takes a lot of jabs at geek culture and the sci-fi convention set.  These aren’t exactly pointed observations to be sure, and they aren’t especially funny either.

All of this was done on an obviously low budget with a lot of non-professionals, which is admirable I guess.  However, the convention scenes suffer from the small budget as it looks more like a birthday party than a sci-fi convention.  The amateurish special effects also hinder the horror aspects of the story, making it feel cheap and sloppy.  I could’ve also done without the Scott Pilgrimesque video game sequences.

The actors do what they can, but they just aren’t quite strong enough to carry the film.  It doesn’t help when they are stuck playing cliched nerdy characters.  Seeing disgraced Ain’t It Cool News founder Harry Knowles turning up as a so-called vampire expert who calls bloodsuckers “sexy things that are predatory” is a bit odd too.

Hurt gets the best line of the movie when she sums up why she can’t talk to guys:  “Bad things happen when I say words.”

JACK’S BACK (1988) ***

Rowdy Herrington made this a year before his magnum opus Road House.  It’s a twisty little thriller that relies on springing several surprises on the audience, most of which occur before the end of the first act.  Because of that, giving a plot description is a bit of a precarious task.  Just know that Herrington isn’t above using the Kitchen Sink theory of moviemaking.  He uses every plot device from identical twins to psychic links to hypnotism and grafts them onto a solid Jack the Ripper thriller storyline.  

Now, there were plenty of Jack the Ripper movies in the mid ‘80s that capitalized on the hundredth anniversary of The Ripper’s murders.  In addition to Jack’s Back, we also had Terror at London Bridge and The Ripper.  This one is easily the best of the lot.  Whereas those films had a lot of supernatural trappings that made them feel hokey, Jack’s Back concentrates on the psychological aspects on not only the murderer, but the victims as well.

Harrington uses a few cribs from Hitchcock, but adds his own brand of cinematic panache, which makes the old chestnuts feel fresh.  Sure, there’s a few ideas that don’t quite pop like so many kernels in a bag of popcorn.  The climax is a bit needlessly drawn out to boot.  Still, it’s stylish and engrossing enough to keep you entertained.

James Spader is excellent in the lead.  He’s clearly having a ball playing a dual role.  What’s great about his work in this film is it never feels like a casting stunt.  He’s able to develop two distinct characters in a relatively short span of time, each with their own faults, quirks, and ambitions.  So, if you’re a Spader fan like I am, you’re in for a real treat.  The interesting supporting cast includes Cynthia Gibb, Robert Picardo, and Chris Mulkey; all of whom make a memorable impression given their limited screen time.

AKA:  The Ripper.

FOUND FOOTAGE 3D (2016) **

An independent film crew are about to start production on a found footage horror movie called “The Spectre of Death”.  At the last minute, the producer decides to make it in 3-D, which confounds just about everyone.  They go on location to a supposedly haunted house in the middle of nowhere where a gruesome murder occurred years ago.  Before long, weird shit that echoes the supernatural events in the script starts happening.

I give Found Footage 3D props for addressing the silliness in making a found footage movie in 3-D right from the get-go.  It also has fun sending up the genre and the inherent stupidity of most found footage horror films.  The behind-the-scenes problems that plague the production make the early scenes feel like a horror version of This is Spinal Tap.  After about a half hour or so, the film starts to become less a clever send-up of the genre and more of an anemic example of it.  

The 3-D works best when the actors are being filmed with lots of available light and the camera is being held perfectly still.  Since this is a found footage movie, the camera is shaky a lot of the time and most of the scenes take place in pitch black.  That is to say, they pretty much abandon the gimmick as soon as it’s introduced, which is a shame.

The final nail in the movie’s coffin is the bloated running time of 100 minutes.  There’s no reason to have a Found Footage movie running that length.  I could have also done without the self-congratulatory cameo by horror journalist Scott Weinberg (who also produced) playing himself.  It’s just a bit too cheeky for its own good and adds nothing to the movie.

THE BLOODSTAINED SHADOW (1978) **

A priest (Craig Hill) witnesses a murder, but is unable to make out the assailant.  When he begins to investigate the crime, the killer starts leaving him threatening notes warning him to back off.  The priest’s brother (Lino Capolicchio) comes to stay with him and soon takes it upon himself to solve the murders.

The Bloodstained Shadow is a middling and overlong giallo, but the great score by Stelvio Cipriani keeps you from dozing off.  It’s easily the best thing about the movie.  Cipriani's score is all over the place, which gives him plenty of opportunity to dabble in different musical styles.  This anything-goes approach makes even the smallest scene interesting.  Not only that, but it’s just plain groovy!  You’re guaranteed to be tapping your toes throughout the inflated running time.

The murder set pieces leave something to be desired though.  Most of the deaths are strangulations, which offers up little variation.  The one standout murder involves a woman’s face being shoved into a fireplace, but that’s about as gruesome as it gets.  

Although the film fails as a straight thriller, it works as sort of a warped soap opera.  As Hill investigates the murders, he pulls back the curtain of his shady neighborhood.  Since he is their priest and has listened to all his neighbors’ confessions, he knows all their seedy secrets.  I just wish there was more done with this aspect of the picture.  

The ending is predictable and drawn out.  There are just too many flashbacks and red herrings here that spoil the fun.  It’s also way too long.  At 110 minutes, there’s so much filler that it drags the whole movie down.  

AKA:  Only Blackness.