Opening Night of Grindhouse Film Festival in Portland, Oregon

I just went to the Grindhouse Film Festival opening with my littl cousin Adib at the Hollywood Theatre and it was crackin'. I respect the Hollywood Theatre and go periodically because all I have to do is take the 75 bus from North Portland and it drops me right off in front. It is a nice theatre and close to a revival house as much as possible. Mostle movies that play in Cinema21 take there run Northwest they basically come to the Hollywood Theatre. Enough with my love affection for the theare let's get the festival and reviews of certain movies I've been looking for on ebay and finally get to see a beautiful print of.
My cousin and I Adib went to go "Zombi" or Zombi 2" and i always knew that the only way to watch "Zombi" was to see it on the big screen. It's impact on a TV screen does not work the same way the big screen offers. I've been Lucio Fulci fan for years and find his films and Italian gore charming. My cousin Adib was exposed to this film before and loved it even more on the big screen. The kid loves zombies. The print had a few cuts and scratches but manageable and kept the grindhouse feeling behind it. Besides, to show grindhouse films in a grindhouse theatre the Hollywood certainly offers that ora. As for Lucio Fulci's masterpiece it still holds up and continues the venue of Fulci being "the poet of the living dead". His zombies are just beautiful, disgusting but beautiful. They are scary, but really just steal the show. The rest of the movie is just an after thought. The human characters you get with and want them to survive, but when you think their gonna win over the zombies and kill them in cool ways...............it never happens. The zombies steal the show and always win and you'll begin rooting for the zombies instead of the characters. The movie is much more than three shots, it deals with atmosphere. Violence, nudity, enterainment.............its all there. The three shots consist of a zombie vs a shark under water( awesome scene), Olga Karlatos getting a wooden shard in her eye(shown uncut), and a zombies tearing the flesh from the neck of Arnette Gay(executed beautifully). Those are the true high marks of the movie, and it still finds a audience till this day. In its day it was considered an atrocity relied patrons to bring barf bags to the movie for there own uses. The obscene violence would cause the audience to throw up, and still makes me queasy. In the end Fulci is a "Poet of the Living Dead".
I missed "Coffy" but will plan to see tomorrow, instead i saw a movie that i have been wanting o see since I was in middle school. A movie I have been trying to get on a dubbed bootleg since high school and so forth, and now it is presented in widescreen, subtitled at the Hollywood Theatre. The movie is JIMMY WANG YU'S CHINESE BOXER. This movie rules, first and foremost jimmy WAng Yu is a huge influence on me growing up watching bootleg copies of "Master of the Flying Guillotine". The man is often credited as a chinese Clint EAstwood, to me he is the Chinese Charles Bronson. This man rocks and is highly underrated. I will being posting up excerpts comemorating the man later in this site. The guy is a true independent, he directs, star, writes, produce his own films. How i heard of teh Chinese Boxre was growing as a middle shooler and watching 'Reur of teh Chinese Boxer", and loving that so much that I wondered what happened with the "CHinese Boxer". I looked and it was really out of print and hard to get. I read all about in my research of Jimmy WAng Yu, and read that it was the first hand to hand combat martial art movie ever to hit the screen. Pus i heard all these burly rumors about a awesome fight scene where he fights 50 people, he was the first martial artist to ever be introduced to the U.S. Many have not heard of him, but in China he's famous. He was influential as Bruce Lee , more as an actor and director. I was so hyped that the hHollywood got a print of this. I asked one of the co-ordinators about how he got the print, and a company called called Celestial have the rights to all the Shaw Brothers movie, the only problem is that its wrong region coding for America. He told me that the company gave them a sample print, and their talks and doing it right now of rematering the film on special edition DVD. I was stoked. Enough, get the film. The movies was everything I hoped it would. WAng Yu kicked some ass, macked on some girls, and I read a long time ago from Taranitno saying the spaghetti westerns was eminent in kung fu films and I never saw that until now. Wang Yu is and has always been influence by samurai films and spaghetti films. The jump cuts in the fight scenes were well put together, not enough to distract the movie. As for the plot, it was pure simple vengeance. The beauty of spaghetti westerns are analyzed in the form of kung fu melodrama. The thing about WAng Yu and his films is it's not just kung fu, but he uses other matiral arts and other type of Asian actors to perpetuate the story. He uses indians, japanese, thai. The man has a open mind. And of course the kung fu was spectacular. Need I say more, I definitely love this film and you should check it out tomorrow, because thats the last time its playing. See it in the theatres while you can its worth it!!!! I'm Aliye Nyoka saying see you later masturbater! I'll be back with more Grindhouse films.

Review for "Where the Truth Lies"

Atom Egoyan is hit and miss, but when hes on it, he is definitely on it. I, personally, think he can do no wrong and I love all his films. I feel that everything he does leaves a mark on the audience. Other people tend to regard his films as slow and pretentious. If you look at "The Sweet Hereafter", as as slow it may be, theirs still no denying it is perfect cinema. His movies have a remarkle way of leaving you speechless. "Where the Truth Lies" is no excpetion, the style let alone is rivaled to BRain De Palma. Its like a Atom Egoyan film directed by Brian De Palma. Even he out De Palma'd De Palma. I don't think De Palma films just erotically entertaining and overwrought in style, there's still a lot of substance in his eary work form late 70's to 80's and early 90's. Its like Egoyan extends that view and makes it far more entertaining, sexier and intriguing. With that notion, it goes the same with "Where the Truth Lies". The story of a Martin and Lewis comic duo played by Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth who are in tales sex, lies and intrigue. Sounds like a tagline to a soft-core porn, but for some reason Egoyan seems to be working in that ground and extending into well crafted piece entertaing fare. Egoyan takes on many themes in his films, but this by far his entertaining. The comic duo do telethons to raise money for kids with handicaps, and Kevin BAcon really carries that Jerry Lewis persona, same with Egoyan capturing that era. But what lies underneath their personas lies a past which a sexy young bellhop was murdered under Bacon and Firth's character care. ALsion Lohman plays a woman reporter out to find out out what happened on that very night. She will also be ina web of deceit and all multi-layered fabrications. All I can say that the result was due with lobsters. Kinky! Alison Lohman does a terrible job, but shes cute. As shallow that may be, she still carries the interest of the film. She also has a lesbian scene that is shot so awesome, that it made stood up and clap in the theatres. The whole feels like an Martin and Lewis one hour special with the interior of a Brian De Palma film and the feel of a Raymond Chandler thriller. That's all movie jumbo, its a very entertaining film that will amke you watch more than once(for the sex scenes) but really for the story and style! Check it out!