Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Here he is, folks, the crustiest seaman who ever encrusted a poop deck, AICN's own Quint, with an overview of his experience with QT5, the latest Quentin Tarantino film festival that, even now, still has Harry huddled over a keyboard somewhere writing some epic 158,000 word opus about David Carradine. No, seriously... he is. In the meantime, did someone hear nails on a chalkboard?
Ahoy there, squirts! 'Tis I, the mushroom cloud layin' seaman, Quint, here to bring you fine folks an overview of the recent Quentin Tarantino Film Festival v.5, held here in Austin recently. This isn't going to be an in-depth coverage of the fest... God knows Knowles has got that area covered. This is more of a Greatest Hits, the films that I walked away with from the fest. I'll keep it as brief as I possibly can, but I couldn't keep quiet about these films. Did you think I'd let Knowles be the only one to sing praises on these forgotten gems? Heeeeelllll no! Without any further adieu... Here we go!
-THE GOLDEN STALLION- Now, I had never seen a Roy Rogers movie, or any singing cowboy movie for that matter. This was a great introduction into the glorious Tru-Color world that is ruled by Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and Uma Thurman... No... Wait a minute... Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and Trigger, The Smartest Horse in Hollywood! That's it. There was just something special about seeing this film on the big screen with a roomful of cheering kids. A great experience. Even though this wasn't the first film of the fest to actually grab me and whisk me away, that honor goes to the Lee Van Cleef triple threat of For A Few Dollars More, Death Rides A Horse and especially Day of Anger from the night before, The Golden Stallion was nevertheless a magical screening.
-OMEGA MAN- I had seen this flick before, but only on video. Quentin had a beautiful 35mm IB Tech print of this movie and good God... IB Tech, for those not familiar with the world of actual film film, basically means the color stays forever. It never fades. It was like seeing a brand new movie. The trailer that I keep seeing for this film is red, having lost it's color. The FUCKING video I've seen of Omega Man is faded. Seeing Chuck Heston fight off crazy Albino Vampire Creature Thingies on the big screen with sharp color was amazing. A totally fun movie, great story... It reminds me a bit of Dawn of the Dead. Based on Richard Matheson's I Am Legend.
-LIFEFORCE- Again, another film I'd seen. This played late in the Sci-Fi/Horror Marathon that was kicked off by the above Omega Man and boy was it a jump starter for the audience. Again, there was just something about seeing Tobe Hooper's sci-fi masterpiece on the big screen... seeing Mathilda May in all of her naked glory strutting her stuff 20 feet high... Wow... Great movie, great audience movie, great print! It was even the European cut of the film that has more nudity! Hooray!
-THE BLADE- Terrific Kung-Fu flick from the Martial Arts Epic night. An awesome recent Tsui Hark flick that has my favorite fight, more in terms of character involvement than choreography, from the fest. The end fight scene between the one armed hero, armed with his dead father's broken sword on a chain, and the man who killed his father just blew me away. There's a shot during the fight scene after the bad guy takes a huge swipe at our hero with his sword where our hero's back is to us and then all of a sudden his shirt splits revealing a deep, ugly cut running down his back. Brutal, intense and just fucking cool.
-ITALIAN CONNECTION- One of the most entertaining movies of the festival for me, an Italian Crime flick directed by Fernando Di Leo and starring Mario Adorf as a sympathetic pimp who's being unfairly hunted down by two hitmen, played by Henry Silva and Woody Strode. The pacing of this flick is amazing. It doesn't ever stop once it gets going. Vastly entertaining, great characterizations and c'mon... Henry Silva and Woody Strode are two badasses that are even more badass when together on-screen.
-BROTHERHOOD OF DEATH- My favorite movie of the fest. It's not the best film, but it's my favorite movie. I had absolutely no idea what to expect from this film. It played on Good Ol' Boys Nite, after a Southern Fried flick in the same vein as The Dukes of Hazard called Dixie Dynamite. Brotherhood of Death is set in the South and has some good ol' boys in it, but I wouldn't call it a good ol' boy movie. It definitely feels a lot more like a Blaxploitation flick. I mean, the flick's about 3 black Vietnam Vets who come back from the war only to fight an enemy even worse than Charlie, The Ku Klux Klan.
Hands down the most fun, most entertaining film I saw at the fest. I know that sounds wrong being that it involves serious subject matter, real hatred from an existing group, but that's kinda like saying you can't enjoy Raiders of the Lost Ark and call it a fun movie because the villains are Nazis. Brotherhood of Death joins such greats from QT Fest past as The Dion Brothers, The Muthas, Wonder Women, the Ghetto Freaks trailer and Girl From Starship Venus as pure fucking entertainment. If you can find yourself a copy of this movie, watch it. It's unfuckingbelievable. I still can't believe this movie exists and I had never even heard a whisper about it before the fest.
-EASTERN CONDORS- My second favorite flick of the fest. I love Sammo Hung anyway, but this film tops everything I've seen from him previously in terms of pulsing, involving action, characters and pacing. It's a Vietnam flick. It feels like Sammo's version of Rambo: First Blood Part 2. Lots of guns, huge body count and the most involving fight choreography of the fest. If you're a fan of Hong Kong cinema at all, I urge you to seek this one out. It's out there. The dialogue alone... I can't stress how cool this flick is.
-ROLLING THUNDER- Great, great, great film. Massawyrm and I were talking after the flick and he pointed out how Tarantino-esque the film was. The pacing, the shots, the performances... You can tell while watching this great revenge flick that it is one of Quentin's biggest influences as a filmmaker, just as Jaws would be one of mine if I were a filmmaker. I had seen this before, but it's just such an amazing film that I couldn't skip over it here. One of Tommy Lee Jones's first and best performances.
-FIST OF FURY- This was the original Fist of Fury, what was released as Chinese Connection here in the States. I had never seen this film. Oh... My... FUCKING... GOD! Bruce Lee was the coolest motherfucker to ever, ever, ever grace the surface of this planet. I swear to God... In natural charisma alone... While watching this film you believe this man could kill you just by punching you twice in the stomach. Body posture, body language, facial expression, vocal noises... Bruce Lee is a killing machine in this film. Truly a classic.
-NEVER A DULL MOMENT- The second kiddie matinee featured this 1968 Disney flick starring Dick Van Dyke, Edward G. Robinson and Henry Silva. This movie about a down on his luck actor who gets mistaken for a hitman was amazingly entertaining in a way that Disney hasn't been in quite a while. This is the same kind of entertainment that captured us with flicks like Mary Poppins, The Incredible Mr. Limpet and Bedknobs and Broomsticks, but unlike those films it doesn't fall back on traditional Disney animation at all. It just blows me away that this film exists and before this fest I heard not one thing about it. Nobody ever said, "You like Mary Poppins? You should check out Never A Dull Moment. It's a little hard to find, but you'll dig it." Hilarity for the whole family. When's the last time you saw a Disney comedy that you could say that about?
-SHARK- Lastly, Sam Fuller's underwater epic Shark! (aka Maneater). I saw a bunch of Sam Fuller flicks at a retrospective series the Austin Film Society put on a few years ago. While I was glad I got to see some of his more obscure stuff like White Dog on the big screen, I was always disappointed that I didn't see Shark. I mean, y'all know me. Know how I earn a livin'. I loves me a good shark flick. Now, this film is no Jaws, but damn if it isn't one of my favorite performances by Burt Reynolds (in 1968!!!). A really fun movie with a great ending.
There you have it, squirts. A little rundown of my picks of the best of the best from this year's QT Fest. Some obscure, some not so obscure, all cool. It was hard to pick the best, being that there were no total stinkers of the fest, and I feel bad for not bringing a few up, like Dark of the Sun or The Family, but at the end of the day those listed above are what I walked away with from the fest, the flicks I'll remember for a long time to come.
That's about it from me this time out, squirties. Time to shove off, hit the head and then hit the sack. I'll be back shortly with some more reviews of films, scripts and even a few juicy interviews to entertain you fine folks with. 'Til that day, squirts, this is the resident crusty seaman, Quint, bidding you farewell and adieu.
-Quint
email: aicnquint@aol.com
