DVD Review: TNT Jackson

I didn't really know anything about this, but based on the cover, I took the risk, and thankfully it paid off. While this film isn't going to set new standards for you, I found it entertaining, so I consider that a win.
Basic story is, TNT Jackson comes to Hong Kong to try find someone, the reasons for which she keeps to herself. It's probably that guy we saw get killed in the opening scene, so it's safe to assume she won't find him. She does meet some other people along the way though, a white girl being chauffeured in a Rolls named Elaine who offers her a ride, Joe, the owner of a club which is the last point of contact for the man TNT is looking for, and Charlie, another black American who takes a liking to TNT and seems to be working for some local gang. Oh yeah, we also saw him kill the guy TNT is looking for in the first scene, so no surprises where that's going to end up. And even though I'm suggesting the film is obvious, it does actually have a few turns in it that keeps it developing, and not just being a straight forward revenge tale.
The cast is good, in that it doesn't totally suck, but it's about what you'd expect from this kind of film. Jeanne Bell and Pat Anderson, who play the female characters in this film are both attractive, which doesn't hurt. Stan Shaw who plays Charlie might be recognisable if he wasn't so young, he's been working steadily since. He was in Rocky, but I recognise him more from Daylight. The other cast members are generic bad white guys who might be more familiar to connoisseurs of these films, but I don't know any of them, or the Filipino cast either.
So I guess the reason to watch this film is for the poor kung-fu. Jeanne does what she can, but it's obvious she has no real training. Smae with Pat Anderson, so it's great when they fight each other in a cemetery. Another great scene, though a bit more risque, is when some bad guys attack TNT in her room. She's just wearing a flimsy white nightgown, but she takes it off and turns the lights out to fight them, saying "You wanted black, you got black." The bad guys keep turning the light back on to try see her, but she keeps turning it off to beat them up. I thought it was a imaginative way for the usual exploitative nude shots to get in there, and like I said, it doesn't hurt. Another thing I enjoyed was the character of Joe, a very modest man who walks int the dark room, and gets embarrassed when he turns the light on to see TNT nude, then quickly turns the light off again. He has another double take when he walks into TNT in a bubble bath, but there's no nudity there, but he's always a gentleman. Another aspect I like, though it is smaller, and that is the moments of over the top violence, like when TNT breaks some guys arm in half, or the final battle when she dispatches Charlie. There's not a huge amount of bloodshed in it, but it sprinkled in there, like a seasoning in a good meal. It's certainly an enjoyable film, and not just to laugh at, though that is part of it, but I genuinely like the story and it's pretty competently directed, so I recommend it.

DVD Review: Who Can Kill A Child?

This came in the mail yesterday, I watched it last night, and I'm recommending it to you today. Who Can Kill A Child? is a Spanish horror film from 1976, directed by Narciso Ibañez Serrador, and starring Lewis Flander and Prunella Ransome; none of whom I have ever heard of before. Which is a pity, since this is definitely a film worth knowing about, and so I would hope that the names associated it would also be known, but alas no. But that is a mistake we're rectifying now, isn't it?
I'd heard mention of this film, so I was peripherally aware of it, so when a new DVD was being released I thought I'd give it a shot, since it was meant to be somewhat of a classic. It's always a risk doing this, you're never sure what you're going to get, as some people's classic is another man's Transformers (also known as the worst film ever made).
I guess this is a fairly simple film, in terms of plot. A holidaying couple, married and expecting their third child, are traveling in Spain without their children. The husband wants to take his wife to an island where he had visited 12 years ago, an isolated bit of paradise. They hire a boat and travel the 4 hours to get there, where they are greeted at the docks by smiling kids. They go off in search of the boarding house, only to discover something is amiss. I don't want to say too much more, but I think you can get a sense of what might be happening by the poster art.
The film was really effective at building the tension, it's a genuinely creepy film. There isn't much blood or violence in the film, but what there is shocking due to the context and escalating dread the film creates. If you read other reviews of this film, a lot is made of how the majority of this film is shot in daylight, the opposite a typical horror film. That's true, it is beautifully shot, the village looks like a Mediterranean idyll, and you can imagine wanting to visit there, which is why it's so unsettling. Such an innocent setting for a horror film, and such an innocent horror as well. As one of the island inhabitants says as he's explaining what's happened, who can kill a child?
I thought the casting was pretty good. The couple look like a couple, like real people, not models turned actors. I loved Prunella's freckles, they made her more real, not covered up by make-up. The kids all seem to give natural performances, though they're not really called upon to do too much. Basically have fun. I'm not sure I'll look at a piñata the same way after watching this film.
The film opens not with the movie, but a collection of archival footage from various wars, inter-cut with the credits.  The footage shows us the innocent children who suffer when adults go to war, with accompanying text giving the statistics of those who died in the conflicts, with the number of children often representing half the number. It was an interesting way to start the film, framing it in this way. It kind of dampens the mood when you're just after a bit of a fun night in front of the TV with some exploitation cinema, but it does give a context for what's happening in the film. In the extras on the disc, there is a small interview with the director, and he says he wishes he had ended the film with the sequence rather than opening with it, and I agree with him, but I guess it's too late now. But apart from the odd way for the film to open, it doesn't really make any other missteps. There's nothing that really stands out as bad or weak, it was all pretty good, with the standouts being the way it's shot and made, it's an incredibly well-crafted film, I think, and I highly recommend it.

Orchid #1

 It’s been a while since I wrote up any comic reviews, mainly because I was swamped with comics, but I thought I should put something up about this one, mainly because it’s written by Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave fame. That might be of interest.

So the first thing you notice is the quite striking cover, who one might assume is the titular character, Orchid. You would be right in that assumption, though she actually doesn’t appear till the last quarter of the book, and by then I’d kind of forgotten I was reading a comic about a girl called Orchid.

The book is set in a world where the oceans have risen, society has fallen, and genetic monsters roam the wild eating those too poor to live on higher ground. All that is essentially told to us on the opening/credit page. But then it tells us again as we actually start reading the comic, spread out over the next few pages, the exact same wording. Which would have been fine if I hadn’t just read it on the previous page. I guess it’s a kind of set-up piece that could be at the start of every comic, but if it’s going to be at the start of this first issue actually within text boxes in the comic, then I think that was a mistake to have it as a paragraph on your credit page. Anyway, that’s really my only real complaint. As the text within the comic, it seemed a bit clunky, and I was a bit worried about Tom Morello’s chops at writing a comic, but once we get past that, it’s all ok.

So instead of meeting Orchid at the start, we meet up with a bunch of rebels, who have stolen a mask of a famous rebel leader, which is supposed to have some kind of power, but at the very least is a rallying point for the revolution, and has symbolic power. These rebels are being chased, but one of them named Simon gets away with the mask, and it is through this verbose young man that we eventually get to meet up with Orchid, a prostitute with an attitude of looking out for number one, but also looks out for her family.

So the world building that’s going on here is pretty solid. Tom has set-up the world pretty well, though there’s nothing strikingly original in the ideas. I don’t mean that as a diss, I’m just saying a kind of post-apocalyptic world is familiar, it’d be hard to come up with something no one has ever seen before. Anyway, they’re doing a good job. Scott Hepburn is doing the drawing, and he’s doing a nice job visually. His characters are clear, and the genetic beasties he’s drawing are freakish. The world they live in is well realised, appropriately overgrown and decaying civilisation. So far I’m enjoying it.

I read in the editorial piece at the back that there’s a free download of an original song that Tom Morello has recorded to enhance the reading experience of the comic. The first one I think anyone can download, but the next ones you’ll need the code from the comic. I wish they had mentioned that at the start of the comic, rather than at the end, so I could have had it playing in the background as I read it. Anyway, it’s not what I was thinking, though it’s a pretty solid song, and I’m looking forward to hearing the rest.

So that was Orchid #1. You can buy it digitally if you want, it only costs a buck, though I assume next issue will be more in line with standard comic prices. I liked it, and I look forward to the next 11 issues.