DVD Review: BIO SLIME (2010)

 

BIO SLIME (2010)

Production Company: Forward Motion Entertainment
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 87 mins
Video: 16:9 Widescreen
Director: John Lechago
Cast: Victoria DeMare, Vincent Bilancio, Ronnie Lewis, Micl Bartluci, Gia Paloma, Magic J. Ellingson

BIO SLIME comes from the mind of KILLJOY 3 director John Lechago who also directed BLOOD GNOME and MAGUS. His latest entry is a sci-fi horror b-movie that begins with a drug deal gone bad on the seedy streets of LA when a double-crossing drug dealer ends up a stiff and his girlfriend Donna flees the scene with a mysterious briefcase. Running scared she ends up at her friend Jack's (Magic J. Ellinson, RED SANDS) meth-lab located in a converted apartment building that now houses a low-rent porn operation as well as the paint studio of Troy (Vincent Bilancio, RAT SCRATCH FEVER), a once rising star in the LA art scene who's now just a sad drunk with waning options. Also in the building are porn director Chuck, porn actresses Mary (Victoria DeMare, KILLJOY 3), Annie, Troy's abused niece Shannon, art dealer Hal, the landlord Jimmy (Al Burke, KILLJOY 3) and his young mail-order bride Costanza.

While certain drama's unfold within the building, including Jimmy evicting Troy, Donna's curiosity about the contents of the briefcase results in her accidentally releasing what's inside and what's inside is a slimy, flesh-eating blob which make her it's first victim. The creature takes up residence in the building's plumbing and crawlspaces and the next to fall prey to the blob is a porn actress showering away the day's slimy activities. At first it's victims disappear unnoticed but when Shannon's abusive boyfriend Brandon (Mark Stefanovski) is driven outta the complex by force he returns with vengeance on his mind trapping everyone inside with not just him but the tentacled alien blob as well. With no way out and no cellphone reception (of course) it's an all out siege as they try to avoid being absorbed in the alien slime.

The acting pretty typical of a low-budget b-movie, there's some decent performers and some not so decent and in the former category we get a strong performance from Vincent Bilancio as the likable alcoholic painter Troy who just so happens to go cold turkey this particular day, as you can imagine it's difficult to fight of an alien infestation with the DT's which leads to some desperate measures on his part. Also turning in a solid performance is Victoria DeMare as porn-actress Maria whom Troy totally has the hots for. You may recall DeMare from her memorable performance as Batty Boop in Lechago's KILLJOY 3 and this is a fun part, particularly after she is absorbed into the creature and interacts with Troy playing on his desires for her. There's a fun group dynamic throughout the film, and while at times there are perhaps too many characters onscreen for my tastes Lechago does his best to make it work despite some awkward dialogue and stilted acting.

Tom Devlin's (SOMEONE'S KNOCKING AT THE DOOR) special effects make-up on the film are of the 80's old school horror variety with some cheap CGI thrown in which tends not to be the greatest but overall the practical effects are top-notch for what surely must have been a limited budget. The creature effects are slimy, gloopy and really call back to Chuck Russells's THE BLOB and with a bit of SPIDER-MAN 3's Venom thrown in. The way that it absorbs it's prey and incorporates them into  itself is pretty creepy stuff.

A few of the action set pieces felt a bit awkwardly staged but Lechago makes up for it with some very effective creature effects and some sleazy nudity courtesy of the porn operation. BIO SLIME is a flesh-eating blob flick that's not too original and not nearly a stunner but its definitely a fun b-movie with some elements of THE BLOB, THE THING, SPECIES and SPLINTER. The film as of yet has no distribution but hopefully will see a DVD release sometime in the near future, this would be a great rental. 3/5

http://www.bioslimethemovie.com/

DVD Review: Demeking, The Sea Monster (2009)

DEMEKING, THE SEA MONSTER (2009)

"Terror Lies Beneath"
Cinema Epoch


RATED: G
RUNNING TIME: 99 Min.
DIRECTOR: Kohtaro Terauchi
CAST: Takashi Nadagi (Hachiya), Kohei Kiyasu (Kame)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Japan

SUMMARY: In 1969, a young man named Hachiya finds an anonymous letter in a glass bottle which foretold of the apocalyptic arrival of a cosmic monster known as Demeking. Since then, he has physically prepared himself in a lone struggle for that fateful day when the monster will arrive. (from CinemaEpoch.Com)

FILM: Demeking, The Sea Monster is a live action adaptation of Takashi Imashiro's 1991 cult manga Demekingu which I've not read as I'm not a huge manga fan, to be honest. As the film begins we see an ominous asteroid as it hurls through space, presumably on a collision course with Earth, setting up the expectation that some creature feature disaster further awaits us. The setting of the film is the early 1970's and  we are introduced to Kame (Kohei Kiyasu), an awkward high school student who just doesn't fit in with kids his own age, he's bullied and generally disliked by his peers. He lives in a sleepy port town where he works at his families tofu shop and has little aspirations other than spending his time with a trio of adolescents who look up to him. Together they form an exploration club and go off on fantasy filled expeditions in search of adventure and fun. While on one of these expeditions at the port they come across a "ghost ship" and decide to explore it. Once inside they are interrupted by the owner of the vessel, Hachiya (Takashi Nadagi), a young man who works at a local theme park.  He tells the exploration club of the Demeking - a creature he is destined to defeat before it can destroy Tokyo. When pressed to give more information about this creature he sends the group on a scavenger hunt that will lead then to the truth. It doesn't really, but it allows them to do what they do best - letting their imaginations soar with the possibility of discovery.

I really enjoyed the acting in this film, very subtle, it's not comedic but it has a definite streak of humor throughout. The two main characters give understated performances as Kame (Kiyasu) and Hachiya (Nadagi), two similar but different young men who seem lost in life with no direction, each filling the void with fantasy. There's a quiet desperation and sadness to their lives that the actors capture really well. They lose themselves in their fantasies. Kame avoids the stress of high school by taking on the role of a big brother to the adolescent exploration club. Hachiya is consumed by the notion that he has been tasked to defeat the Demeking which allows him to internally avoid the pressure by his father to do something meaningful with his life.  And what comes of the mythical creature?

Well, the titular Demeking does finally appear in the final 1/3 of the film, albeit during a fever dream Kame suffers. Dream or not it is a well rendered sequence, Gojira has nothing on this super-beast. As the previously mentioned asteroid slams into the Earth, a gargantuan, stalk-eyed, armored slug emerges and begins laying waste to the cityscape with an irradiated beam it emits from its mouth. It is a thing of beauty as the glowing eyed creature tromps through the village laying eggs and setting buildings on fire. Of note, the creature origins are outer space, not the sea as the title would indicate. I guess Demeking, The Space Monster sounded too much like a schlocky 50's era b-movie.

I really enjoyed Demeking, The Sea Monster and director Kohtaro Terauchi's handling of the material which while not at all what I expected, I did end up enjoying it.  This is much more a tale of two people entering young adulthood while trying to hold onto the delusional fantasies of childhood than a true creature feature though it does meet that criteria as well to some degree.

DVD: The Cinema Epoch DVD of Demeking, The Sea Monster is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen with a 5.1 Japanese language surround sound mix with optional English subtitles. It's a good looking film shot on HDCAM and the cinematography wonderfully captures the sleepy atmosphere of this seaside village. On the downside, the only special features are trailers for other Cinema Epoch films and I would have loved a featurette that touched on the source material.
 

VERDICT: Demeking, The Sea Monster seems to be marketed as creature feature and this is really dismissive of the film's true nature as a offbeat character piece about two young men lacking direction in their lives. If you go into this expecting a creature feature/disaster film I think you'll be hugely disappointed, but as a dramatic, nuanced character piece it is a great watch that is punctuated by a brief but fun monster attack on a sleepy port town. The DVD from Cinema Epoch is available today, so check it out. *** (3.5 Out of Five Stars)

- McBASTARD

Film Review: Piranha 3D (2010)

PIRANHA 3D (2010)

“This summer 3D shows its teeth”

RATED: R
RUN TIME: 89 Min.
DIRECTOR: Alex Aja
CAST: Craig Elisabeth Shue, Christopher Lloyd, Ving Rhames, Richard Dreyfus, Jerry O’Connell, Adam Scott

I have loved director Joe Dante’s PIRANHA since childhood; it’s a great schlocky JAWS rip-off, and an awesome good time. When I heard that Alex Aja would be helming a remake, in 3D no less, I was pleased. I’m not anti-remake FYI, in my defense I would point to THE THING, THE BLOB, and THE FLY as penultimate examples of awesomeness. I am a bit down on 3D though, particularly the 2D to 3D conversion bullshit, CLASH OF THE TITANS and ALICE IN WONDERLAND were lackluster films with shitty 2D conversion. I enjoyed Aja’s previous films HAUTE TENSION and THE HILLS HAVE EYES, though I’ve not seen MIRRORS. It irks me that after a promising start with Haute Tension that Aja has been on a steady jag of remakes, it seems a waste of talent and squandered opportunity, WTF, some originality please. PIRANHA 3D is yet another reimagining, and 3D t’boot, but it seemed like big, dumb, fun, with that in mind, and the wife in tow, I headed off to the local Cineplex to catch this masterpiece of schlockery.

The film opens the day before the annual spring break madness on Lake Victoria, actually Lake Havasu here in Arizona, just a few hours from my house. It’s a sleepy day out on the lake for Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfus, sorta reprising his classic role from Jaws?); he’s doing a bit of bass fishing, drinking a few beers, singing a song that’ll be familiar to those who’ve seen Jaws, no doubt. An underwater tremor occurs unleashing the pre-historic piranhas that have been trapped in an underwater cavern below the lake. I won’t spoil it, but shit happens. Its fun and sets the mood for the rest of the film.

From there we’re introduced to Sheriff Julie Foster, played by the still totally hot Elisabeth Shue (ADVENTUIRES IN BABYSITTING, HOLLOWMAN) her three kids, Deputy Fallon played by Ving Rhames (PULP FICTION, DAWN OF THE DEAD), Derrick, a sleazy purveyor of a Girls Gone Wild type production, played sleazily by the not-so-baby faced-anymore Jerry O’Connell (STAND BY ME, SLIDERS), Christopher Lloyd (BACK TO THE FUTURE) as Mr. Goodman, the local fish expert and an endless parade of young, gorgeously annoying people who are soon to be chewed into tiny, bloody bits of fish food.

 

What worked for me in this film is actually the dumbness of it all. This isn’t so much a remake of the original as homage to the big, dumb, fun of it. Embracing stupidity seems to be its aim, and its aim is true. An extravagant amount of nudity, breasts galore for the dudes, a glimpse (actually two) of O’Connell’s penis for the ladies. I’ve not seen a bloodier more splatter-filled film in years, pretty awesome, played for schlock, not for scares, though my wife jumped several times. The CGI piranha are pretty laughable, it’s like a SyFy production on steroids with better cinematography and practical effects, but it works. I also enjoyed seeing all these gorgeous sorority/fraternity assholes getting eaten and screaming in pain, what can I say, I work in a hospitality service industry at a University full of wealthy douche bags who appreciate very little. Director Eli Roth (CABIN FEVER, HOSTEL) who cameos as an MC of a wet t-shirt contest, gets a particularly bloody death, good stuff. I won’t spoil all the great gore and deaths; let’s just say if gore is your thing, you’ll not be disappointed.

What didn’t work for me? The 3D is pretty terrible; the 2D to 3D conversion typically looks like shit, no exception here. In fact, a few 3D scenes were pretty flawed; god knows it doesn’t pull you from the gripping storyline, though. C’mon, make no mistake, this is Piranha 3D, it’s all about the 3D tits, ass and gore, and it comes through on all three counts in spades.

VERDICT: I walked in this film expecting a tasteless onsalught of breasts, blood, and guts and I was pleased. My wife enjoyed it, too, laughing out loud a few times, and she hates horror, for the most part. Our first date film was SPECIES II, she still bitches about that. So, don’t go into Piranha 3D expecting an epic masterpiece of cinema, it ain’t. Do go see it to enjoy a more bloody 3D breasts than you’ve ever seen, and more blood, and gore than any summer flick in recent memory. A very fun time, indeed. ***1/2 (3.5 out of 5 stars)