Life After Beth (2014)

March 18th, 2019

Directed by: Jeff Baena

Written by: Jeff Baena

Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, John C. Reilly

Budget: $2,400,000

Quote: "No. No. How could I be... how could I be dead if I'm alive? You can't be both things Zach. You can either be dead or alive, and I'm alive."

Trivia: Nick Offerman can be heard narrating the documentary on Machu Pichu in the beginning of the film. One of the several ties to Aubrey's role in Parks and Recreation.



Oh man, remember My Boyfriend's Back? That movie from the early nineties? The one where the guy stages a fake bank robbery to impress the hot chick at school but it backfires and he is actually killed but returns from the dead nonetheless to take her to prom, and hilarity ensures as he tries to manage his sexual attraction with his cannibalistic urges. Life After Beth is like that movie, except without the funny moments, likable characters, or narrative arc. The movie is not a complete waste, it offers great performances by Molly Shannon and John C. Reilly. It also adds its own touches to zombie mythology and has a couple of good gory moments. It just seems very unfocused which left me feeling, "what's the point?" With so many zombie movies out there, this one is not necessary viewing.

Brain Damage (1988)

March 17th, 2019

Directed by: Frank Henenlotter

Written by: Frank Henenlotter

Starring: Rick Hearst, Gordon MacDonald, Jennifer Lowry

Budget: $900,000

Quote: "Then don't worry about it. You don't need to worry about anything ever again. I'll do all your thinking for you. Just put me on the back off your neck, and everything will be fine."

Trivia: During the fellatio scene the crew walked out of the production refusing to work on the scene. A similar incident happened during the shooting of Basket Case (1982).



My friend Andy told me about this flick a few months ago when we were heading to L.A. to see Nick Cave (show was awesome... but that's another story... I'm trying to avoid going off on tangents). I thought he was talking about Brain Dead (the one with Bill Pullman) which has a similar plot. No, he assured me, it's by the guy who did Basket Case. He said something about how it's about a parasite that causes people to hallucinate while it eats people's brains. He also said it was fucked up. Both of Andy's synopses are correct. The movie is fucked up.... particularly the fellatio scene... but I'll get to that later. The movie is the love child of Frank Henenlotter, the guy who brought us the Basket Case movies and Frankenhooker. True to his 42nd Street Grindhouse roots, Henenlotter delivers another bizarre and gore-filled movie. It is weird, violent, trippy, disgusting, and heartfelt. It is a brutal warning about drug addiction while simultaneously being a good movie to get high to (if that's you thing).

Dolemite (1975)

February 11th, 2019

Director: D'Urville Martin

Writer: Jerry Jones and Rudy Ray Moore

Starring: Rudy Ray Moore, Jerry Jones, D'Urville Martin

Budget: $100,000

Quote: "I got your boy hanging. You no-business, born-insecure, junkyard motherfucker!"

Trivia: At one point, the New York Times called the film as the "Citizen Kane" of Blaxploitation (Black Exploitation films).


Dolemite. Dolemite. Where do I begin? Dolemite is the blaxploitation classic. Bar none. Shaft and Super Fly might have had more success (thanks largely to the soundtracks by Issac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield no doubt), but Dolemite was the movie that really took the pimp-turned-vigilante idea and really ran with it. By the time Dolemite came out in 1975, the blaxploitation film genre was already in full swing having begun in 1971 with Sweet Sweetback's Baadassssss Song (a movie I'm looking forward to reviewing soon). Sweet Sweetback and the blaxploitation films that followed generally have a nearly all black cast, black heroes (usually criminals turned vigilantes), funk soundtracks, and heavy use of violence and sex. Dolemite takes all these elements and dives in head first.