One often sees the term "guilty pleasure" when critics admit that they actually enjoyed an example of inferior movie-making, and I understand the term well. As a cure-all from a surfeit of seriousness, there is absolutely nothing like watching a bit of trash to bring one back to reality -- and I do have my own favourites in this category (like "Killer Klowns from Outer Space") that I return to from time to time. As it happens I have seen three examples of this phenomenon in the last few days which I can almost recommend:
Gwendoline (1984): This was the last movie directed by Just Jaeckin who also directed the original "Emmanuelle" in 1974 and since he is still amongst us, his was a relatively short but very stylish directing career. The full title of this one is "The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of Yik Yak" which may give you some idea of how outrageous this movie, based on a graphic strip, is. It's the old tale of a daughter in search of her father who has disappered while looking for the ultimate butterfly who lands up with her faithful maid and a male adventurer in a land of women. Cue lots of gratuitous nudity and futuristic design, but all put together with a huge amount of ingenuity. I had the choice of watching the movie in French (the language in which it was made) or English (the language which the heroine, American actress Tawny Kitaen was obviously speaking and then overdubbed) which meant that neither choice was ideal, so I settled on the French and ignored the fact that Tawny's lips were saying something else. I guess that adds to the guilty pleasure syndrome.
Wild Zero (2000); I've known about this Japanese cult item for a while but have only just got around to viewing what the world has eagerly awaited: a rock n' roll zombie flick! With a trans-gender love story! Made by a music video director, this film is lots of flash and not a great deal of coherence, as invading alien spaceships have awakened the dead who chomp on whatever they can find until a rock group and a rock fan put the world to right. They have no idea how to destroy zombies, since in an amusing bit of interplay the main characters all admit that they have never actually viewed "Night of the Living Dead". Still I was treated to a ridiculous number of exploding heads which always makes my day.
DOA: Dead or Alive (2006): If anyone had told me that I might actually be amused at this one based on a popular video game which I have never played and featuring a bunch of semi-clothed actresses of whom only Jaime Presley and Devon Aoki were names that I knew, I would have said 'you must be joking', but it was actually a lot of fun -- or maybe I was just in the right mood. Directed by Hong Kong director Corey Yuen, it is yet another example of champion flighters squaring off against each other until the overall winner emerges -- and the fight sequences were all imaginatively done. Add to this mix evil organiser Eric Roberts using a machine to steal their fighting skills to be absorbed into his own body and then sold to the highest bidders, the overall idiocy is clear. However with nice bright colours and more than acceptable action, I would really have to be an old grouch to totally dismiss this one which was probably aimed at teenaged boys.
2 comments:
Hello Pat. My wife and I went with another couple in the early 1970s to see a film called ' Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia' at a cinema in Welling. It was absolutely awful, and it was only after we left that we found out that all of us had wanted to leave and go to the pub almost from the start. Nobody said anything until after we left because we each thought the others may have actually been enjoying the 'film'.
At least with a video we would have been able to chuck it in the bin and have arrived at the pub much earlier. Malcolm.
Mars Attacks ... so bad , so corny yet terrific .... I have it on video !
regards
Shaun
http://journals.aol.co.uk/shauntanner/Tenthirteengoesforth/
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