O Lucky Man (1973)

O Lucky Man (1973)
Written by David Sherwin
Directed by Lindsay Anderson

It is time for you to be ashamed.

Time for you to go home to your mother and cry on the couch, not because Janey wouldn't let you kiss her goodnight. But because all this time you thought you knew movies and we're an idiot savant of all art.

However sadly... and unforgivably you did not know O Lucky Man (unofficial, official sequel to 1969's If...) existed. Hopefully I change that.

Malcolm Mcdowell heads the excellent cast as Mick Travis, a traveling coffee salesman, who encounters life in a roller coaster ride of success, chance meetings, horrible confrontations and cutting edge satire that is rarely seen anymore. Hell, I think the last time someone tried to out do it was 'Whoops Apocalypse' , oh, I'm sorry, you haven't heard of that one either. Well, as simple as the premise of O Lucky Man is, essentially its just a guy traveling, but its so much more. Think Forrest Gump without all that running, and instead of a soundtrack that tries to immerse you an era, how about a soundtrack that is the era, sung and performed by Animals keyboardist Alan Price.

The soundtrack alone is one for any british moniker, however this cult film is so gloriously underrated that when you do pick it and watch it, and scenes like the hideous goat boy shock the shit out of you, you can't believe you found something so wonderful.

Helen Mirren plays multiple characters and looks excellent, granted she still does to this day of the review. Its all Malcolm though, this movie along with If.., Clockwork Orange and even Caligula, show what kind of rarity he is to the film role. Its too bad Rob Zombie's Halloween's almost unspool that image.

O Lucky Man borders on three hours, is broken up by musical interludes, and is zany, original, often funny, arty and no less than Lindsay Anderson's masterpiece. Put side by side with his film If.. you got yourself a double feature you are quite frankly never going to forget. But even on its own, O Lucky Man remains to be the unseen classic of the seventies.

Its not worth seeking out, its mandatory!

Infestation (2009)

Infestation (2009)
written and directed by
Kyle Rankin


Remember back when Ben Affleck and Matt Damon had that kick ass show called Project Greenlight, and how after three seasons only one movie was worth a damn. That being John Gluger's Feast, seasons three winner.

However, season two saw winners from my home state, Maine, Kyle Rankin and Efram Potelle won for their submission into project greenlight and were granted a million dollar budget to make a movie. That movie ended up being Battle of Shaker Heights, since then either director has a lucrative if unknown career.

Infestation should change that. It didn't, but it marks Kyle Rankin's superb talent for effects, gags and writing.

One fine morning, Cooper wakes up goes to work and realizes every one is tangled up in webs at the corporate office. He finally shows work ethic and initiative to keep himself and band of misfit employees alive. However, it soon becomes a troop of four as the gang makes head way to the city where all the bugs seemed to be migrating from in effort to destroy the hive.

The premise, simple and one we've seen a thousand times before, think, Slugs, Swarm, Squirm, Bugs, Infested, and any other insect movie you've seen (Mosquito Man, no no, not to be confused with Mosquito Coast). However, this one is very funny, with plenty of sarcastic humor, funny one liners and creatures that sometimes shock. Its great when a bug movie gives promise and lives up to it, each human that gets bit by the bugs becomes catatonic and starts turning into an eight legged insect. Can you say awesome, not until you see the dog that gets bit, it is laugh out loud awesome.

Its part Night of the Living Dead, They Came From Within, Ticks and any misfit romance movie you've seen, mixed with a unique blend of humor, heart and great performances from lead actor Chris Marquette and Ray Wise who plays Coopers father.

I was lucky enough to see this at the Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) sponsored by the Railroad Square Cinema. This was a highlight for the festival that year and in attendance, Kyle Rankin, who after the movie was over had a very brief question and answer.

Suffice to say, I shook the man's hand.

Seek this movie out!

Last Night (1998)

Last Night (1998)
written and Directed by
Don Mckellar

you might as well drink, fuck and party, because in six hours the world is going to end. Last Night is an appropriately restained masterpiece (if you will) regarding the end of the world. No communication, no transportation; the city is essentially in riot, however for Don Mckellar's character its a way for him to do some soul searching while revisiting friends and finding out what they are doing.

The movie is very simple in setting, pacing and quite funny with brave honesty. One character is trying to screw any and everybody he can, including the main character.

What I want to focus on is who would like this movie. If you are a fan of the IFC channel, this should be visited, however its fans of Wes Anderson, Jim Jarmusch and Lindsay Anderson this is a must. Its a rare intimate look on how people will deal with denial, faith and death. And fairly well if you ask me.

Its as if Neil Simon wrote 2012, but instead of Roland Emmerich exploding things, it was directed by Woody Allen. It deals with the extravagance of human emotion and understanding. Top it off with some surprising funny moments and you've got yourself a date movie. If you date is that 100 pound shadow called worry, depression and anxiety. Just kidding.

However, its a hard movie to find, I suggest you seek it out.

Pieces (1982)

Pieces (1982)
W: Dick Randall and John Shadow
D: J. Simon


Here’s another bought it and it sat on my shelf for months dvd, however this time around I wasn’t emphatically insane about it. It’s a good gory above average chainsaw killer story (not enough of them these days) that made me think of Argento movies and wished I was watching Deep Red. This one is the story of a child who kills his mother and forty years later is on a college campus killing young ladies for body parts…. To stitch back together, oh of course!

This one gets stupid points for bimbos that don’t know how to run, even when a chainsaw is slowly being drawn at them, and amazing detective work by a … detective and a college student! But what makes this movie a classic is the awesome death scenes. When it comes to horror, being scared and watching death is the sexual release. Pieces does not let up, from its opening matricide with an axe to the severing of arms in an elevator, the gore in this flick is delightful. Another of the highlights is an off key performance by Paul L Smith, yeah you know him from PopEye (with Robin Williams) and the criminally underseen CrimeWave, who plays one of the suspects of the college murders. He’s a big eye twitching, on the verge of talking to himself humogous mofo…he also seems to never hear the murders happening… did I mention chainsaws make noises, very loud noises, oh right, One Positive (gratious chainsaw death scenes) plus One Positive (gratuitously naked screaming teenies) equals negative detection of noise! Brilliant!

This movie is pretty terrible, but I liked it anyway. With tons of gore and bad acting this is a party favorite for sure, plus the Dvd available from GrindHouse Releasing has a great transfer and looks clean and crisp, and also it makes the blood look that much more, REAL!

The Strange Case of Senor Computer (1999)

Strange Case of Senor Computer (1999)
Written by Tom Sawyer
Directed by Tom Sawyer


A robot built for company and high tech calculating skills, soon develops curiosity and emotion, starting to believe it is human. Charles, the robots creator, is a man who brilliant is devoid of knowing how to deal with human contact. Whenever Charles leaves for work, Carlotta, the housekeeper, starts teaching the robot little things about life and the robot goes from infant to pre-teen level of thought. He also develops a sense of life through television, not knowing any better. Ike, as the robot likes to be called, starts waning for human contact and starts calling people long distance, racking up credit card debts and woman.

This is one of the strangest movies I’ve ever seen. I love it though. Not because I have a benign love for everything weird, but this movie is so wildly inventive on clearly such a low budget. The acting is great, the photography appropriate and the dialogue is timeless. At one point in the movie Ike convinces a woman he’s never met to masturbate over the phone, which makes her crazy for him.

What makes the film interesting is how bad you feel for the infantile robot and its creator. It’s got an A.I. feel, but with the rawness of an eighties New York underground movie. There are some extremely bizarre scenes, one seen from the robots point of view as it starts screaming like a baby.

One of my complaints though, is since the robot narrates the film, there are moments where the narration is muddled, and you miss a lot of the words said, for me at least.

I highly recommend it for anybody looking for something new and unique.

Screwed (1998)

Screwed (1998)
W: Teruo Ishii
D: Teruo Ishii


This one looks like the rival of Tetsuo The Iron Man, but comes nowhere close to that level of insanity. With a cover promising wild pyschedlic sexuality and madness, what we get is more akin to Japan’s answer to a Richard Linklater movie.

The always excellent Tabanobu Asano (Ichi the Killer, Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl) leads the cast in this bizarre tale of lost love, artistry and loneliness. The opening montage is a David Lynch look into his world as he thinks about his comics, for you see he is a comic book artist, but as we quickly learn his mind starts drifting away from it when his girlfriend breaks up with him. And since they live together, she’s kind of bringing home the person she’s with. He goes on a journey and ends up in a small fishing village where he starts anew, but stays the same. Never taking advantage of the life he so dearly wants.

What sets this apart from some love lorn movies, is this movie is almost devoid of emotion from most of the actors. The dialogue sharp and witty when its being quite frank with feelings. However, I believed I was going to see one of the most insane films of my life and was very surprised. Cover art is very deceiving, don’t get me wrong there are weird dreams and some crazy fantasy in here, but the bulk of the film takes place in a reality that isn’t unlike what we’ve seen before, just presented askew.

Of Unknown Origin (1983)

Of Unknown Origin (1983)
Written by Brian Taggert
Directed by George P Cosmatos


This is a sharp clever apartment thriller which melds Jaws with Willard. The always great Peter Weller plays a corporate executive Bart Hughes, whose wife (Shannon Tweed in her first role) and kid goes off to stay with her mother. After they are gone, Bart soon starts to notice strange going ons in the home and finds himself struggling against a very big rat. The direction is tense and so is the atmosphere, the rat is presumably very intelligent. One scene shows it chewing through wires while Bart’s on the phone. Bart becomes quickly obsessed with killing the creature and buys up tons of equipment to kill it, all the while wreaking havoc on his home.

It’s the type of movie that isn’t unknown, you’ve seen the formula dozens of times, particularly with Hitchcock movies, but what sets this apart is the conviction played by Peter Weller. His believability into spiraling out of control is worth the watch.
It was produced by Pierre David, his name was attached to some of the eighties David Cronenberg movies. It also won Best Actor and Film awards at the Paris International Film Festival. Cosmatos went on to direct the excellent Tombstone years later.