DEVO (2025) *** ½

I saw Devo live for the first time this summer and it was one of the best concerts I had ever seen.  I had been a casual fan before, but I did a deep dive into them afterwards and found their entire discography to be pretty awesome.  Now, in a case of perfect timing, comes the Devo documentary.  If you’re already a die-hard fan, this will be a nice walk down memory lane.  If you’re just a casual fan that only knows them from “Whip It”, you will get an eye-opening look at what they’re all about. 

The film gives us a concise history of the band’s formation (at Kent State at the same time of the tragic National Guard shooting that left four students dead) and how their music began as an extension of Devo’s theory of “de-evolution”.  (The band’s belief that humans are in a perpetual state of regression.)  The addition of music videos (years before the advent of MTV) added an important visual component to the music and the message and helped propel them into cult status. 

The interviews with band members Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale are enlightening and entertaining, even if you’re already familiar with some of their lore and philosophy.  The wealth of footage from their early years (including the band’s very first concert) and fun use of clips from old industrial shorts and horror movies (especially Island of Lost Souls, from which they gained a lot of inspiration) that informed the band’s outlook also makes it highly recommended. 

If there is a flaw it’s that it follows the generic documentary format that several other rock docs have used.  The rags to riches to rags motif doesn’t really ring true, especially when the band is still putting out new music and touring fifty years on.  Still, there’s plenty of great clips and awesome songs along the way, and that alone makes it one of the best documentaries of the year. 

NOBODY 2 (2025) *** ½

Bob Odenkirk returns as the ass-kicking family man Hutch in this energetic, entertaining, and fun sequel.  This time out, Hutch’s job as an assassin is kind of wearing him down and starting to cut into his family time.  He decides to put killing on hold and take his wife (Connie Nielsen) and the kids to a water park in a rustic resort town.  He soon learns the place is ran by a crooked sheriff (Colin Hanks) who is in cahoots with a crazy kingpin (Sharon Stone).  Hutch naturally just wants to be left alone, but old habits die hard and with some help from his dad (Christopher Lloyd) and brother (RZA), he sets out to burn her operation to the ground. 

While it isn’t quite in the same league as the original, Nobody 2 is a sharp, fast moving, and bloody good time.  The film’s dark sense of humor and Odenkirk’s Everyman appeal are its chief assets.  It often plays like a cross between John Wick and National Lampoon’s Vacation and the way Odenkirk tries to calmly avoid confrontation only to plunge headlong into gratuitous violence is often very funny. 

Director Timo (The Night Comes for Us) Tjahjanto delivers plenty of memorable action sequences along the way.  The scene where Odenkirk beats up a bunch of arcade bullies is a blast.  I especially liked the way he incorporated his surroundings during the action as he smashes one guy’s head with a Whack-A-Mole mallet and tosses another into a claw machine.  The amusement park finale where Bob and the gang turn ball pits, funhouses, and waterslides into death traps ends the flick on a high note and is one of the best action sequences of the year. 

Odenkirk once again delivers a strong performance and has a lot of chemistry with Nielsen.  Hanks does a surprisingly good job cast against type as the scummy sheriff.  It’s Stone though who steals the movie as the sexy kingpin.  She’s clearly having a blast, and you’ll probably have nearly as much fun as she does.  

THE STUDENT BODY (1976) **

Carrie (Jillian Kesner), Chicago, (Janice Heiden), and Mitzi (June Fairchild) are three inmates who are given a chance at early parole.  The trio are transferred from a state penitentiary to a state college where they take part in an illicit drug experiment run by a shady professor (Warren Stevens, acting like a budget version of Cameron Mitchell).  When Mitzi begins experiencing severe side effects, Carrie tries to have the experiment quashed, but predictably, no one listens until it’s too late. 

Directed by Gus (The Sidehackers) Trikonis, The Student Body features a mishmash of potentially good ideas that are tossed together in half-assed fashion.  It starts off like a Women in Prison flick with a fun Royal Rumble catfight in the laundry room.  From there, it turns into a college hijinks comedy before morphing into a low rent version of a Robin Cook thriller (and that’s giving it way too much credit).  Since it plays like a laundry list of ideas, it makes for a better trailer than a motion picture. 

The good news is there’s a fair amount of nudity in this one.  Such scenes involve skinny-dipping, hot tubs, coeds being spied on via closed circuit television, and heavy petting sessions.  Unfortunately, the T & A kind of dries up about halfway through the movie and likewise, so does the fun.  It’s a shame too because the first act is thoroughly entertaining.  As the film goes on, it feels less like a drive-in movie and more like an After School Special.  The climax is particularly underwhelming and ends things on a frustrating note. 

The Student Body is notable for being the film debut of Jillian Kesner, who is probably best known for her iconic topless Kung Fu fight scene in Cirio H. Santiago’s Firecracker.  Kesner (who went on to marry the film’s cinematographer, Gary Graver) is great as always and anchors the movie the best she can before it goes careening off the rails.  Heiden is fun too as the feisty Chicago, as is Fairchild.  The cast is rounded out by Judith (Eraserhead) Roberts, who plays Stevens’ wife and Peter (TV’s Dr. Strange) Hooten as his son.  It’s Fairchild though who gets the best line in the film when she says, “Big feet… Big ding-dong!”

AKA:  Sexual Students.  AKA:  Sexual Student.  AKA:  Classroom Teasers.  AKA:  Valium High. 

THE MYSTIC (1925) ***

Michael Nash (Conway Tearle) is a conman who joins up with a sexy sideshow medium named Zara (Aileen Pringle) and her loyal band of gypsy performers to create a phony mystic grift.  They soon set their sights on a wealthy heiress (Gladys Hulette) with the intent of bilking her of her father’s fortune using methods they’ve perfected in their stage act.  Problems arise when Nash begins to develop a conscience, and the woman starts seeing her father’s ghost “for real”. 

Directed by Tod (Dracula) Browning, The Mystic is thematically similar to both his Freaks and The Unholy Three (which was released the same year).  It’s a rather straightforward crime melodrama, but there are plenty of unique touches here to help make it memorable.  The idea of mediums using trickery to defraud people was a hot topic at the time of release, so it makes for an ideal framework for a thriller.  Browning brings a spine-tingling atmosphere and a legitimate sense of spookiness to the seance sequences.  The effects are well done too as disembodied arms float around in mid-air and write letters and ghosts dance about.  

Aileen Pringle is the standout among the cast as the shady spiritualist Zara.  She’s equally alluring whether she’s dressed to the nines in her seance scenes or when she’s scheming to get her hands on Hulette’s loot.  Hulette is quite good too as the naive mark and she has a nice chemistry with Tearle, who is also strong as the crooked conman with a heart of gold. 

While The Mystic might not be as iconic as some of Browning’s best-known stuff, it remains a crackling little thriller all the same. The final act may be a tad predictable, but everything preceding it is entertaining and fun.  Minor quibbles aside, it’s worth a look just for the uncanny atmosphere alone.  

BALLERINA (2025) *** ½

When Eve (Ana de Armas) was a little girl, she saw her father murdered by the sinister “Chancellor” (Gabriel Byrne). Winston (Ian McShane), the owner of the Continental Hotel, takes pity on the orphaned girl and sends her off to be trained as a ballerina.  Since this is “The World of John Wick” we’re talking about here, not only does she learn to dance but she is trained to become a ruthless assassin as well.  Years later, Eve gets a line of the gang responsible for her father’s death and winds up trying to save a little girl from their clutches. 

Apparently, this was a troubled production.  The studio didn’t like the movie director Len (Underworld) Wiseman delivered so they had producer Chad Stahleski reshoot the majority of the film.  Wiseman is still credited, but if reports are to be believed, much of what he shot was scrapped.  Fortunately for the audience, you wouldn’t know any of that from looking at the picture as it plays like a well-oiled machine. 

De Armas is excellent in the lead.  She has a real spark about her and is wholly believable in her fight scenes.  I particularly liked the scene when she beats an assassin with a remote control, and it kept changing channels TV every time they got hit in the face. 

While the set-up is a tad longwinded, the action is aces all the way through.  We get an excellent training montage and a fun sequence where de Armas uses a LOT of grenades to blow the competition into smithereens.  Another amusing bit is de Armas’ fight with a waitress where they repeatedly bash each other over the head with dinner plates, Three Stooges-style. There’s also a badass moment where she MacGyvers herself a gun knife. 

The last act of Ballerina features some of the most deliriously entertaining action of the 21st century.  It contains what is possibly the first ever shootout involving flamethrowers.  Somewhere, John Woo is smiling.  Sure, some of the action suffers from noticeable CGI enhancements, but it’s not too distracting all things considered.

Overall, I thought this was about on par with the first John Wick.  Speaking of which, Keanu Reeves shows up as Wick for an extended cameo and he does a solid job lending support to de Armas without stealing spotlight from her.  (They were also in the awesome Knock Knock together.) 

AKA:  From the World of John Wick:  Ballerina. 

THE PRIMEVALS (2024) ***

The Primevals was a passion project for director and stop-motion animator David Allen.  Sadly, the production was shelved in the late ‘90s and Allen passed away before he could complete the effects.  After three decades, producer Charles Band finally was able to assemble a team to finish the film as close to Allen’s original vision as possible. 

A yeti is killed in Nepal and put on display in an American college.  An expedition led by Juliet (Beyond the Door) Mills then return to Nepal to find a live specimen.  There, they enter a cave and when they come out the other side, they find a hidden jungle where ape men live in villages.  Along the way, they also discover mysterious cylinders that may portend an extraterrestrial presence.  Ultimately, the intrepid explorers find themselves facing off against the yeti inside an alien arena. 

The Primevals is consistent with the kind of stuff Full Moon turned out in the ‘90s.  In fact, it probably could’ve been released through Moonbeam Entertainment, their kid friendly line of pictures.  It’s a throwback to the fantastic movies of yesteryear, and its unabashed reverence for those kinds of films is its chief asset. 

Each act plays like a love letter to a different subgenre of Sci-Fi flick.  The first act involving the search for the yeti is obviously inspired by King Kong (the stop-motion effects for the monster are great).  The second act veers into Jules Verne territory and the third dives right into straight-up UFO shit.  Because of that, it often feels more like a greatest hits collection of Sci-Fi cliches than a cohesive film.

That said, it’s easy to see why Allen would want to make it as it is an ideal platform for him to show off his skills.  The yeti is extremely well done as Allen imbues him with a lot of personality.  You even feel a tinge of pity for him by the end of the movie.  The lizard men alien warriors have an old school charm about them, and the gladiator pit battle with giant monsters is fun too. 

That’s the key word here.  Fun.  I’m sure you could nitpick the flick to death if you really wanted to, but I’m just glad Band was finally able to follow through and complete the movie.  While It’s not a lost classic or anything, it makes for perfectly suitable rainy day entertainment. 

TRAVELIN’ (1974) **

Travelin’ kicks off with what is possibly the shortest sex scene in recorded history.  A guy tells a woman, “Let’s do it,” and they bang in the middle of a field.  She is understandably perplexed when he cums almost immediately, gets dressed, hops on his motorcycle, and then heads on down the road.  Girls, it be like that sometimes. 

After riding around for a bit, our hero finally stops off on the side of the road where he watches a couple fuck in broad daylight.  This guy, while no means the world’s greatest lover, lasts way longer than our hero.  He then stumbles upon a “stud farm” where a bunch of horny hippie chicks hang around and wait for guys to bang them.  Once the biker gets his nut, he heads on down the highway once again. 

All of this is shot with the same cinematic flair of the Zapruder film, and it’s just about as sexy too.  Directed by “Bob” Insert, Travelin’ is shoddy and cheap in just about every way.  It doesn’t help that most of the women in the cast are less than photogenic and the print is extremely jumpy. 

It’s possible to make a decent biker porno with little to no money.  (Just check out Teenage Bikers.)  However, Insert never really makes full use of the motorcycle gimmick.  On the plus side, we do get some truly awful, poorly dubbed dialogue (“That’s a fucking cute clit you’ve got there, my dear!”) that’s good for a laugh or two.  There’s also one funny scene where a fly keeps interrupting a couple while they’re fucking and a dubbed voice says, “Hey, get that fly off my ass!”

Fortunately, it’s only forty-six minutes long and it’s pretty much over before it really gets going.  If you like outdoor sex scenes, you may enjoy it as most of the action takes place in the desert or in the middle of a field.   There’s also a heavy concentration of oral scenes, if that’s the sort of thing that floats your boat.  Most of the time though, Travelin’ really doesn’t go anywhere.