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dragonkazul
Reviews
Neighbors (1981)
When I Burn This Place Down
I can't say this is the worst movie John Belushi ever made. I haven't seen all of his films yet. But I'd put good bank on it being the most depressing. And that's not just because this was Belushi's last role.
Objectively speaking, it's not a bad movie. The performances are top-notch, with both Belushi and Akyroyd working against type to the film's benefit, and the film is adequately assembled.
The story is that Earle Keese is a guy who has it all. He has a beautiful house on a quiet street, a devoted wife, and a lovely daughter who's away at school. Except that devoted wife slogs her way through the household chores with all of a coal-miner's resignation. She burns the meal, throws the expensive steaks to the dog, and drinks like a fish. And that lovely daughter shows up dressed in early punk leathers, showing off her edible underpants and cheerfully declaring she's been kicked out of school. Later on, Vic will say she was obviously looking around for a fix. Earle will insist, helplessly, that she's never done drugs in her life. Vic will just let it go, but the point has been made. Earle has no idea what's going on in his daughter's life, and asking her would do him no good. His daughter would just say "oh Daddy," and act the good child. Whatever her real life is like, she won't let him near it.
I don't know if this it's the late 70s feminist movement, the Suburban ennui, or a demystification of "the American Family," but by the end of the film both women have made it clear that they are moving on and Earle's continuing presence in their lives isn't needed or wanted. So he returns the favor. Everyone heads their separate ways to, hopefully, brighter futures.
I can't think of another movie where the complete and total disintegration of a family unit is portrayed as an unambiguously good thing. Really, that is part of a "happy ending." How did the book end, if this is the optimistic option?
...Have you noticed I haven't talked about the Neighbors yet? Who are the Neighbors? No, really. I just spent a whole movie with them and I have no idea who they really are and what they want. Even their last names are kept a mystery. For that matter, we have no guarantees that "Vic" and "Ramona"are their first names. They are slippery, dishonest, and masters of building you up just to get at your underbelly. He's a shotgun totting sportsman who is loud, aggressive, and unpredictable. She's more like a trick of the light then a person with a breathy voice, permanent bedroom eyes, and a habit of climbing naked into other people's beds. Everything else about them, from the implication that they stole their new house from a senior citizen, to their actual marital status, is murky. We hear several different backgrounds, and the characters are serial liars.
Not that it matters. This isn't their story. The family was dead before they arrived. They just took it off life support...by violently smashing the heart-and-lung machine to pieces. It might have been a Mercy Killing, but you know what, even if it HADN'T been, I doubt it would have made any difference to them. They are plot devices, not people.
They are entertaining enough characters on screen, I guess, but if they ended up dumping Earle's body somewhere, I wouldn't be surprised.
That is why I say this film is depressing. It's well-made, for what it is, but instead of making me laugh, watching it made me feel uncomfortable and unhappy. The credits have rolled, but that feeling lingers. And I don't like it.
Loose Cannons (1990)
It's fine except for one thing.
Oddly enough, when it's a dark crime caper with some comedic/absurdist elements, the movie actually works pretty well. There are stakes, people are getting killed, and there are Nazis being evil...there are some genuinely exciting sequences in this movie.
Then Dan Akyroyd's "Multiple Personality Disorder" rears it's ugly head again and the whole thing turns into a farce. You think his impressions of pop culture characters are supposed to be funny...and they are... until (here's the spoiler) you learn that he developed this MPD after a gang captured him and tortured him so severely he almost died.
Yes, that is his actual back-story in this movie.
How are you supposed to laugh at that? If they'd played this as a mostly straight movie with some jokes thrown in, it would have been fine. If Ellis had been what he was originally presented as: a brilliant detective with a broken mind trying to claw his way back into functionality, that would have worked. Hey, when Dan Akryoyd isn't mugging, he actually gives a pretty touching performance. This whole thing would have gone down as a dark but functional crime flick.
Bur someone decided this had to be a "comedy." A comedy with Nazis, torture, and murder in it. And that killed the flick.
Still, somethings have to be seen to be believed.
The Real Ghostbusters (2011)
Who you gonna call?
With the studios stalling, some enterprising Ghostbusters fans have taken matters into their own hands to bring new, exciting Ghostbusting stories to the screen. What this project lacked in budget, it makes up for with enthusiasm, and the loving details on Ecto 1, the giant ghost puppet, and the proton packs will prove it. The special effects are rudimentary but perfectly adequate to keep the story going. Suspend your disbelief and enjoy the good things this movie has to offer, like that really cool firehouse set, a genuinely clever script, The first thing to realize, is although it's clearly taking place in Atlanta (fountains, landmarks, talk of peaches, and cops with powerful accents will tell), this isn't "Ghostbusters, GA." Orr hasn't gone the conventional Fanfilm route of opening up his own franchise and populating it with original characters. This film is an adaptation of a "Real Ghostbusters" episode, and these characters are very clearly Venkman, Spengler, Zeddemore and Stantz just with name changes.
Harry Valentine, as -Egon- Novan Holtzler, will impress you the most. He captures the deadpan delivery and unbending will of the GB's mad scientist in residence, and the shot where he mimes what he's got planned for the Big Bad is worth watching this film just to see.
Special mention too for Orr himself as -Peter- Derek Aultman, a guy clearly more interested in getting the girl then saving the day. Brandon Shorter, too, is quite fun to watch as the guy who still hasn't really figured out how he ended up in the middle of this madness.
Generally, this is the best kind of fan service: it was clearly made because these people love the source material and had a story they wanted to tell. The script is clever, the sets are cool, the acting is fun, the humor is humorous, and most importantly...this film GETS Ghostbusters. It understands that what makes them so compelling isn't the coolness of fighting monsters with laser beams; it's the characters and how they interact.
I'd be curious to see what Orr could do with some ORIGINAL Ghostbuster characters, and what kind of Ghosts one fights in Georgia...
The movie's free to watch on youtube. Go see it already. Why are you still here?