I SAW THE TV GLOW (2024) * ½

Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) are two teenage social misfits who bond over their love of a kids show called The Pink Opaque.  When Maddy mysteriously disappears, it leaves the painfully awkward Owen to his own devices.  Years later, she returns and tells him she was actually in the show.  And I don’t mean “on” the show, but IN the show.  Now, she’s heading back and wants Owen to join her.  But… like… she’s got to be crazy… right?

There’s a good jumping off point somewhere in I Saw the TV Glow, but the filmmakers can never manage to follow through on its admittedly solid hook.  Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun gets points for the overall vibe as the nonstop bisexual lighting is cool and some scenes are dripping with atmosphere.  However, the film drags its feet so much that once it finally gets to where it’s going, it was pretty much all for naught, which is extremely frustrating to say the least. 

The problem with slow burn movies like this one is there’s got to be some sort of payoff to justify the sluggish pace.  If there’s going to be some big central mystery, you’ve got to give the audience at least a few breadcrumbs to work with.  You can’t get by with ambiguity for ambiguity’s sake for a hundred minutes and expect us to be with you when the ending doesn’t deliver.  You can’t hang your hat on a few moments of inexplicable weirdness without at least trying to bring it all together down the homestretch. 

The best parts come from the show The Pink Opaque itself.  Schoenbrun did a good job at recreating the look and feel of crappy ‘90s Nickelodeon shows, from the bad acting to the shoddy monsters and the cheesy special effects.  Sadly, the lore of the show is far more believable than the shit that happens in the movie.  Ultimately, I Saw the TV Glow doesn’t burn very bright at all. 

GIGANTIC HEROINE LUCIA: HERMAPHRODITE LESBIAN SURRENDER (2014) ****

After defeating a couple of giant monsters, the gigantic hermaphroditic heroine, Lucia is transported to another dimension by an evil villainess who crucifies and molests her.  While she is chained to the cross, the evil woman tugs and sucks on Lucia’s robo-dick until she achieves multiple forced orgasms.  Eventually, her team comes to the rescue (no pun intended), but it’s only a matter of time before the dastardly extraterrestrial dominatrix sicks her tentacle monster on her.  After attaining several climaxes against her will, Lucia is beamed back aboard the villainess’s ship for some normal-sized molestation. 

For me, these Giga Co. Ltd. flicks are a lot more entering than those Axel Braun XXX Marvel parodies.  The model work is outstanding, and the monster suits are terrific.  I especially liked the twins that looked like a cross between Santa Claus and the monster from It Conquered the World.  There’s also a Godzilla-style giant lizard and a big ass robot with an anvil-shaped head.  The giant robot battles are a lot of fun too, and the Ultraman-style growing scenes are lovingly recreated.  

Also, how many superheroine pornos that you know of have the balls to give us such a downbeat ending?  There’s porno, and then there’s art.  Gigantic Heroine Lucia:  Hermaphrodite Lesbian Surrender is more the latter.  (Okay, maybe it’s not exactly “art”, but it definitely has enough production values and bizarre imagery to put most XXX flicks to shame.)

Even some of the hardcore Ultraman scenes have a kick to them.  I mean, when was the last time you saw an intersex Ultrawoman tied up by a tentacle monster and forced to climax using something that can only be described as an octopus Fleshlight?  Let’s face it, you’re either the kind of freak who wants to see two women in Ultraman inspired costumes scissoring or you aren’t. 

I know what camp I fall into. 

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: CONNORS’ WAR (2006) ** ½

FORMAT:  DVD

The original Michael Myers, Nick Castle, who also directed The Last Starfighter, was at the helm for this DTV action flick starring rapper Treach from Naughty by Nature.  Treach plays a special agent named Connors who was blinded while rescuing the First Lady from terrorists.  His old boss Brooks (Blu Mankuma) promises to get his sight back using an experimental procedure that gives him acute (but temporary) night vision.  Naturally, he wants him to use his new gift to steal a top-secret nerve gas for him.  Predictably, Connors is double-crossed, and he sets out to stop Brooks from unleashing the gas and taking out the President. 

Treach isn’t bad in the lead.  He has a decent amount of charisma and equips himself well enough in the action scenes.  I also enjoyed the performance by Nia Peebles as the sexy nurse who goes on the run with him.  It’s fun seeing how quickly she equips herself to popping caps in bad guys and intimidating concierges. 

Connors’ War is a thoroughly watchable DTV action flick.  I know that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it’s perfect for a rainy day when there’s nothing better to do.  Despite the night vision eyesight gimmick, it’s fairly routine stuff.  While it’s moderately entertaining, it often feels more like a TV pilot with occasional F-bombs than anything else.  That’s more of an observation than a criticism, as it doesn’t really detract from the fun. 

Castle’s direction is workmanlike for the most part.  I will say the scenes where the doctors inject the serum into Treach’s eyeballs are rather effective and are likely to make you squirm in your seat.  Too bad Castle couldn’t bring that level of suspense to the mundane “man on the run” scenes.  He goes a little overboard with Treach’s night vision POV shots too.  (It just looks like someone accidentally put their contacts in inside out.)  Otherwise, it’s a surprisingly solid way to kill an hour and a half. 

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: RETURN TO THE BLUE LAGOON (1991) **

FORMAT:  DVD

I distinctly remember the first time I developed the hots for Milla Jovovich.  I was in middle school, and one day, I flipped on HBO, and they had a First Look at the making of Return to the Blue Lagoon.  From the first moment I saw Milla, it was love at first sight.  Ever since then, I have been Team Milla.  Never mind the fact that it took me thirty-three years to finally get around to watching the actual movie. 

Directed by William A. Graham, who’s mostly known for TV movies like Guyana Tragedy and Get Christie Love and boasting a screenplay by Leslie Stevens, the creator of The Outer Limits (!), this belated sequel picks up immediately after the events of the first film with Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins’ boat being found by another ship.  Oh, they’re dead.  Whoops!  Their baby is still alive though, and the widow (Lisa Pelikan) on board quickly adopts it.  But wouldn’t you know it?  Cholera is spreading through the boat, and the widow, the baby, and her child skedaddle.  As fate would have it, they wind up right back where the first movie took place, the two-story bamboo hut rancher still intact. 

So, this time, instead of having a crusty sailor to teach the younglings how to survive, it’s a prim and proper schoolteacher who gives them spelling lessons and has awkward conversations about the birds and bees.  Naturally, she kicks off, and the two kids grow up to be horny teens, played by Jovovich and Sleepwalkers’ Brian Krause.  Before long, Milla gets her first period, he gets his first boner, and they do it. 

So far, so good.  Brooke Shields’ loincloth casts a long shadow, but Milla fills it admirably.  (And has a couple of brief nude scenes.)  Krause is pretty good too, all things considered.  Unfortunately, the lovey-dovey stuff is rushed through for a gratuitous subplot about a crew coming aboard the island and ruining the couple’s bliss.

The longwinded set-up also means Milla doesn’t show up till about the forty-five minute mark.  Because of that, there’s only a small window of time when she’s able to do some blue lagooning (if you know what I mean).  Oh well, at least the cinematography is excellent. 

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: THE BLUE LAGOON (1980) *

FORMAT:  DVD (REWATCH)

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

(As posted on January 22nd, 2011)

Two brats wind up shipwrecked on a desert island with some old codger who teaches them how to fish and stuff.  After he dies, the kids grow up to be Christopher Atkins and Brooke Shields.  One day, puberty kicks in and Chris wonders why he’s getting “weird hairs down there”.  After choking the chicken a couple of times, he finally figures out where to stick that sumbitch.

 

Okay, let’s just get this out in the open:  The only reason anyone would ever watch this movie is to see Brooke Shields’ boobs.  Since the role of Brooke’s breasts were played by stunt tits and we only get to see fleeting glimpses of them, it’s pretty much all for naught.  It also doesn’t help that the first hour or so of the movie leading up to her disrobing plays like the shittiest Hallmark Hall of Fame Movie you ever saw.  I nodded off like a motherfucker during this part of the movie, but sadly, the parts where Brooke gets naked are just as boring.

 

The Blue Lagoon doesn’t even work as camp.  The romance aspect of the movie is awful, but not in a laughable way.  The acting is terrible too as Atkins and Shields both act like goddamned mannequins.  The only slightly amusing part in all of this comes when Atkins builds their overly elaborate and highly implausible shelter.  It looks like Bob Vila came over for an episode of This Old Grass Hut.  I mean how many grass huts do you know of have patios made of bamboo?

THE SUBSTANCE (2024) ****

Ladies and gentlemen, there is a new sheriff in town.  Her name is Coralie Fargeat.  You might remember she made that solid revenge flick a few years ago, aptly titled Revenge.  I dug that movie sure enough, but nothing could’ve prepared me for her latest film, The Substance.  It is a modern classic that is destined to be critiqued, analyzed, and examined for years to come.  It is quite simply the ultimate horror film of the 21st century. 

The story is an old hat.  Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is an aging celebrity fitness personality desperate to be young again.  She hears about a new wonder drug called “The Substance” and tries it.  Very quickly she learns about the side effects.

That set-up will no doubt seem familiar to anyone who’s seen The Wasp Woman or The Leech Woman.  Fargeat also borrows from a rather surprising array of sources, both highbrow and low.  What makes it work so gloriously well is that she wears her inspirations on her sleeve with pride.  There are moments here that look like Kubrick on ecstasy.  Others resemble Lynch on steroids.  The most accurate comparison I can make though is this:  Imagine if David Cronenberg directed the Barbie movie and that will give you an idea of what we have here. 

I don’t want to spoil the best parts of the movie, so I’ll keep the review as brief and vague as I can.  However, I will say that Fargeat crams a lot of messaging into the movie and says it all in bold and italics.  The reason it works is because she starts the film at 10 and continues to crank it up as the story progresses.  I mean, having a lecherous Hollywood type named “Harvey” is probably one of the most subtle aspects of the film. 

Sometimes, you need to beat the message into the audience.  When you see Elisabeth continuing to use The Substance, even though she knows it will destroy her, you can drop in miracle diets, weight loss cures, plastic surgery, etc. as the metaphor, and it works.  Look at the people who can’t stop having plastic surgeries but are so far gone they can’t seem to stop.  Look at the people jabbing themselves to stay thin.  Her deadly desire for The Substance doesn’t seem farfetched. 

The opening sequence is one of the best scenes you’ll see in this millennium, and perfectly sets the tone.  Once the movie goes into full-on body horror mode, it doesn’t look back.  The finale contains one of the most amazingly sustained scenes of concentrated cinematic insanity I’ve ever seen.  During this scene, I thought of Society, Basket Case, Carrie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Elephant Man, and Leviathan.  During this scene, you may find yourself disgusted.  You may laugh.  You may recoil in horror.  All are acceptable responses. 

The performances are stellar. Moore is a revelation.  She has never been better.  She brings so much pain to the role.  It’s a brave performance.  One of the all-time greats.  Margaret Qualley naturally is her match as Sue, the entitled, sexy, younger version of Elisabeth.  She radiates sexuality but keeps her unfathomable rage bubbling just under the surface.  (Oh, and speaking as a connoisseur of celebrity workout videos, I would totally buy the full season's worth of her “Pump it Up” exercise program.)  Then there’s Dennis Quaid as Harvey.  He’s a force of nature.  He almost resembles a Looney Tunes version of Vince McMahon. 

This is the kind of movie I love.  It’s equal parts arthouse and grindhouse.  Even though it’s drawing inspiration from several sources, it still feels totally fresh.  It also contains the best use of a chicken leg since Killer Joe.  It’s already won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and yet, something tells me it could win a Fangoria Chainsaw Award just as easily. It’s that kind of picture.  The best one of the year.  Possibly, ever.

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY (1981) ***

FORMAT:  4K UHD (REWATCH)

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

(As posted on July 17th, 2007)

This is one of Lucio Fulci’s most atmospheric films. It doesn’t have his trademark balls-out gory set pieces and moves at a deliberate pace, but stay with it, because it has an electrifying final reel.

A family moves into the titular house that was once owned by the wonderfully named Dr. Freudstein. Little do they know that Freudstein is a maggot faced zombie who is dwelling in their basement and needs to kill people to stay alive. The ghost of Freudstein’s daughter befriends the little towheaded Bob (A Blade in the Dark’s Giovanni Frezza) and tries to warn him that her daddy is a nutjob. Bob tries to tell his parents about Freudstein, but since Bob is whiny and badly dubbed, nobody listens.

There’s a knife through the mouth, a bat attack, a sword in the neck, a decapitation, and some throat ripping for the gorehounds; and some brief nudity for the pervs. Co-starring Catriona (The Gates of Hell) MacColl and Dagmar (Werewolf Woman) Lassander.

Memo to prospective homeowners: If the house you are looking at has the tombstone of its former tenant in the middle of the hallway, DON’T BUY THE FUCKING HOUSE!

QUICK THOUGHTS:

The House by the Cemetery remains a solid second tier Lucio Fulci flick.  Like The Gates of Hell, it suffers from some lulls in between the good stuff, but when Fulci cooks, he whips up a smorgasbord.  But the thing that makes the film so memorable is BOB!  Try to keep track of how many times someone says “Bob”.  Warning:  Don’t make a drinking game of it.  I can’t have your death from alcohol poisoning on my conscience. 

4K UHD NOTES:

It’s important to mention that Blue Underground’s edition is mastered in Dolby Vision.  My 4K player and TV can only support HDR+, and it still looked phenomenal to me.  The blacks (especially in the basement scenes) are spectacular, and the picture looks sharp throughout.  It looks particularly great whenever the camera is in motion, as it often feels like you’re in the thick of the action.  Oh, and you get BOB in 4K!   What more can you ask for?