Goldbeater

Forbidden World is a cheap, exploitative imitation of the movie Alien, yet still relatively tolerable. Even though it came hot on the heels of Alien, any qualitative comparison is definitely out of the question. Despite the fact that I can remember very little two and a half years after watching it, I do recall a pretty good synth soundtrack by Susan Justin and a well-designed monster with big teeth who successfully eliminates completely the memories of an oversimplified screenplay and dull characters. With zero expectations, it's a pretty bearable horror B-movie.

Somewhere in the beginning, when Tobe Hooper was still signed up for the project, this movie was supposed to be a kind of zombie crime movie. After some days of filming, however, Hooper was fired by the producers (allegedly unable to fulfill his obligations in time), and John 'Bud' Cardos became the director, who completed the film. However, the test screenings then had a very poor response from audiences, and the producers decided to go back to the drawing board, and removed the zombie element, added an alien prologue and laser beams in the eyes of the killer. This created an utterly disgraceful movie lacking continuity or any sort of justification for what comes along in it, where nothing really seems to be happening, and everything makes zero sense in the end. The only quite interesting aspect of this movie is the strangely odd music that grabs hold of you.

OK so I don't know if it was caused by Gorbachev's very advanced age, or simply by the fact that the classic political thing of holding out on telling the whole truth is still entrenched in him, but it seemed to me that the ex-Soviet president gives very evasive, sometimes even misguided, answers to many of Werner Herzog‘s questions, and so his firm control over the documentary crumbled a little. On the other hand, it also gives a rather interesting picture of the interviewed subject. In any case, it still leaves me with a bit of a bitter impression that Werner Herzog may have bitten off more than he could chew this time.

With Toolbox Murders Tobe Hooper decided to take the original slasher from 1978 and create his own version of a killer murdering people with various tools in the environment of an old Hollywood apartment building. It would have been quite opportune for him, however, many sources state that during the production of the movie, one of the main investors pulled out, which lost Toolbox Murders up to a third of the promised funds. This actually shrunk the planned shooting schedule and scattered the action (the perceptive viewer will notice several significant holes in the continuity and logic of this movie) and it is actually quite surprising that it still works in the end, even if only on the really simplest basis. It is interesting that at one point Christian Bale, who was very willing to work with the horror master Hooper, also applied for one of the main roles in the movie, but in the end, this didn’t happen and he devoted his time to more extensive preparation for the role of Batman. Today, he can only be laughing at that.

The Toolbox Murders is a well-made and slightly overly-complicated slasher movie with a killer in a ski mask, who rampages around an apartment complex with the help of a variety of tools (definitely more fun than The Driller Killer). Although every now and then the pace drags a bit, it’s definitely one of the more accomplished horror movies on the "video nasties" list.

Joe Begos was visibly riding the wave of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 with this movie, which is already quite obvious from the style of the opening credits and the choice of the main theme music, not to mention a practically identical plot premise, gracefully relocated to a bar for a group of old American war veterans besieged by a deranged drug dealer and his relentless army of drug-addled punks. And so the slaughter begins. Unlike Bliss, Begos's second movie in 2019, VFW draws on predominantly likable characters performed by seasoned veterans of (not only) B-movies, and it was fun to watch their interactions and exchanges. Apparently, every single actor enjoyed the filming and, in some scenes, it even seems that their momentary outbursts of laughter and shaking of their heads were a spontaneous reaction to the action on the set and the crazed over-the-top delivery of the other actors. If I have to blame Begos for anything, it's again an exaggerated emphasis on style-over-substance. The darkened shots plus blue and red lighting seem superfluous in some scenes, and at times the action is quite confusing precisely because of that, although I understand that this, on the other hand, could cover up the flaws of a lower budget and make fake-blood look like real blood. In any case, I like and enjoy this type of B-movie-shaped fun once in a while.

Bliss is one of those movies where I’d more than happily welcome the opportunity to turn off the dialogue track and leave only the foley sound effects and soundtrack. The thing is that from the beginning to the end of the movie you have to listen to all sorts of complaints and constant sparing from extremely unlikeable main "heroine" (Dora Madison), which very quickly grates and starts to annoy the crap out of you. Furthermore, apart from her night-time escapades, you won't find much going on here. For me, this is a purely visual gorefest, whose strong color stylization in combination with the grotesque violence and copious amounts of blood can satisfy the eyes of a horror movie fan, however, you better switch off your brain as quickly as you can.

This is one of those quite forgettable westerns with the great Clint Eastwood, which is only memorable due to the interesting supporting actors Robert Duvall and John Saxon, and the fact that Clint imparts his own brand of justice to all the bad guys yet again.

With this series comes the inevitable variation and expansion of the mythology of the excellent first series. Old characters get into increasingly bizarre situations and then there's a whole range of new characters, a higher number of episodes, new directors and creative styles, which, together with the producer's decisions, leads to a slight "smoothing" of the story. And just when you think to yourself that it's starting to get too “soft”, David Lynch comes back as director and he literally throws a bomb into the town, blasting Twin Peaks characters and motifs in all directions with the last episode leaving you reeling. Now it's somewhat difficult to describe how frustrating it was to see this ending, as the third series did not come along for many many years.

David Lynch and Mark Frost present a game with an absolutely engaging and incredibly stylish set of bizarre characters against the background of the mysterious murder of a high school girl. What originally appears to be an ordinary everyday police investigation in a mountain town, gradually turns into a misty mystery with a dense atmosphere that could be cut with a knife. MacLachlan's FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is one of the best-written characters in TV history, although it has to be noted that Twin Peaks offers a whole range of other great characters.