Love Letters surprised me ... and also didn't surprise me at all. Let me explain.
Jamie Lee Curtis really pushes at her teen slasher acting boundaries in this one, where she plays a classical music DJ (and apparently a very popular one) whose mother dies at the start of the film. In going through her mother's things, she discovers her mother had a long-running affair with a married man.
At this point, the movie surprised me: Jamie Lee Curtis says "hey! me too!" and decides a torrid affair with a married man is precisely what her life is missing. She finds a married man, captures him, and begins a hot and heavy extramarital affair. The homewrecker!
Then the movie ceased surprising me: the dynamics of the affair is EXACTLY like every other movie ever made about "the other woman." Married man says "I never made promises!" "I have children!" "I have a history with my wife!" "Please try to understand!" and so on. She catches feelings, way more than she should. They fight, they scream, they make up, and repeat. This section of the movie bored me to tears. I don't think it was even remotely novel even in 1984.
The one nice surprise for the viewer is the very end, when she finally meets her mother's lover. But otherwise, I would avoid this - nothing really worth investigating.
This is trash. And worse, it's dumb trash. Rich man's son (Willie Aames, trying to shed his teen heartthrob image) takes up with jungle-based cult (think: Jim Jones). Reporter and cameraman venture deep into the jungle to find and interview him, and the cult leader. There is also a cannibal aspect. Michael Berryman plays a rather cool cannibal enforcer. But this movie is exceedingly gory and grimy, but not in a way you can celebrate at all - it's like having raw guts thrown in your face. Shocking for a moment, then just gross, then you get mad. That's how Cut and Run is. Italian-produced, and you can tell. The usual Italian gross-out gore-fest. What WAS going on in the '80s in Italy?!
I wanted to hate this - it's just so stupid, without a thought in its head - but ended up liking it anyway. And it had a couple nice sections that made me smile! Four college girls with varying motivations go on Spring Break to Ft. Lauderdale. They are ready for some mondo beefcakes!
Well, some of them. Others are more interested in more cultured types of boys. And others still are willing to have flings with married cops (!). One interesting diversion is the musician, who has to choose between the pompous classical musician and the laid back synthesizer player. Ha! Their on-stage duel was the best part of the movie.
It's also unusual to show the protagonists driving drunk - really stinking drunk - but this movie wasn't afraid, nor did it shy away from the inevitable consequences.
As reported above, this isn't a smart movie, but it has a good heart, and is worth checking out late at night, or with a large group of girls (preferably on Spring Break).
Trash. Z-grade garbage. This terrible movie is apparently famous for the tortured production that had multiple rewrites, reshoots, and different endings. It shows.
Made by the producer who had just made Prom Night, it was designed, apparently, as a slasher movie for the older, more mature viewer. So it's a director and a bunch of young actresses who all want some coveted role. One by one the actresses are killed off in absolutely LUDICROUS ways. I howled in misery watching some of this abysmal murders.
It's honestly as if they asked a 5 year old how someone died. "She's ice skating and she's really good and she goes over here but over there is a lady, and she's wearing a mask, and it's a scary mask, and she has a big knife thing, and she is skating too, and she comes over and hits the first lady, but I don't know why. I'm hungry."
I didn't care about a single character, I didn't care about the plot, I didn't even care about the making of the movie. This is a real 0/100. While researching it for this blog, I read that it has a cult following, which sort of blows my mind. Who...what... why!? Maybe I'm too uptight for a movie like this. Or my expectations were all wrong. Either way, yech. Bad taste in my mouth.
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