The Doorman - Die Hard with Girl Power and a Norwegian Knock Off Bill Burr

*Blog post started on October 27, 2020.

My prior vacation day, I felt I was clinging to my past. This most recent one(s), old is how I feel.

With a three-day weekend, I think I got a lot accomplished. There is a new tattoo. Peoria bars were fun with genuine interactions, and I made it to more of them than usual. I paid my respect to Stacia Marie Hardin and discovered a cool block of shops in Pekin. Who would not call the last Co Op records in the Heart of Illinois being located by a thrift shop and a used bookstore operated by TAPS No Kill Shelter (featuring kittens and a polydactyl cats) a little slice of heaven in a town whose mascot was once the Chink? To the town's credit, the appropriation of the dragon into their municipal logos is cool.

I spent time with my folks with only the hourly mention of Hunter Biden's emails. Perhaps I should have spent the night and watch the Michigan State game, but a day where I did not leave my apartment and caught a lot of Pokemon was good (It was "Pokemon Let's Go Eevee". Perhaps the games are becoming to expansive. 20 hours of story is all you really need.). Sunday I was back at the retailer, but with a Redbox $0.75 off coupon and groceries to grab. With NinetyForChill.com back in working order, a review of "The Doorman" at 1 hour 37 minutes would be perfect content. Too bad I called it an early night. Catching up with the G1 Climax finals led to me being exhausted. This obviously felt odd since I did nothing extraneous on Saturday.

Since I will end up at some point putting out an abridged version of this post, let me fill up some space.  Thanks Redbox for the reasonable Blu-ray rental price and the inflated DVD rental fees. We as a society need to rid ourselves of standard def. Screw those who hate change. There is a good chance they will further ruin the country in a week. Let me have this.

Did I over exert myself taking a chest freezer out to a customer's car? Was the replacement air fryer too much work to move as I nearly lost it when I walked into a security pylon? The amount groceries I took home was less than usual.

This left me with a dilemma. I had a movie to watch and I would not be back from the bank until 6:15 pm. There was still dinner to make. So apologies for rushing through about five minutes of this Ruby Rose feature. The feeling of victory getting it back to an appropriate vending machine with 10 minutes to spare warrants this action. And it at least gave me some good vibes from this film.

The Doorman

Check out the rest of review at "Ninety For Chill: A More Acceptable Runtimes

CineMaterial.com - The Doorman (2020)

 

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"Versus": Dead Alive with Wires

It is hard to pin down what "Versus" is. A modern samurai flick, a wire-fu film a year removed from "The Matrix", another foreign zombie flick, etc. Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura (whose best known American film is "Clive Barker's The Midnight Meat Train") throws so much into his films that you are bound to like something from each of them and appreciate his directorial style, but being able to wade through this stew maybe difficult.

Two prisoners have escaped and made it to the rendezvous point in the Forest of Resurrection. The gangsters they meet up with are a wild bunch who were instructed to pick these guys up after they kidnapped a woman. Prisoner KSC2-303 is a feminist and being unable to tolerate the arrangement, he uses his martial skills to dispatch one of this crew. His efforts soon turn out to be futile because that guy does not stay dead.

During the confusion over this undead compatriot, KSC2-303 makes a break for it with the woman. Now the gangsters must catch these two (whom their employer has special plans for) in the forest where they buried most of their victims. If you thought the Fire Swamp was tough, this place has more than ROUS to deal with.

"Versus" is a fast and furiously paced film until story becomes involved. It is fun and has a sense of humor, but it is because there is zero exposition until the latter half of act two.

For 80 minutes of being an homage to all the great Hong Kong genres, it slams the brakes to put some nationalism into the story. The story does pick up again to set up the finale, but the return to a samurai film makes it a bit anticlimactic. It is a clash of styles that only worked in "Kill Bill".

Mixing so many styles may require an expert filmmaker. This was Kitamura's first full-length feature. It is not as mature as "Meat Train", but his mastery of lighting is present and his mis en scene is dead on. He later abuses these traits in his Clive Barker adaptation, but his skill cannot be denied. He just was not ready for such complex projects.

"Versus" is an example of Ryuhei Kitamura's ability to make fun movies. He did not know at this point how to make a great film, but he definitely has the skill set. Kitamura is like Michael Bay except he can direct. If you think about a watching a Bay flick, immediately turn to his Asian equivalent.

IMDb - Versus (2000)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0275773/

The Midnight Meat Train - Takes us back to a better, bloodier time.

To bring Generation X back to our teenage renting practices might be what Lionsgate was looking for with Ryuhei Kitamura’s adaptation of a Clive Barker short story "The Midnight Meat Train". This was the time in their life when they would either go to a movie, or only visit the horror movie aisle of a video store and try to decide which film offered the coolest gore and quintessential nudity.

When a hip art dealer (Brooke Shields) tells Leon (Bradley Cooper of "The Hangover") that he is failing as a photographer, and suggest that he needs to be brave to capture New York City the way it really is. Convinced of this, Leon goes out late at night to shoot its seedier elements.

Cinematerial.com

During this quest to capture the dark side of NYC, he winds up crossing the path of a Mahogany (Vinnie Jones of "Snatch" and "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels"), a loner who always rides the 2:05 am train, and the missing fashion model he last saw boarding. Leon decides to follow him to piece together his case that he is culprit, and ends ups taking his girlfriend and himself to even darker subject matter.

When occult elements start appearing in the film, it leads one to believe that the story could not have had the photographer’s quest play as big of a part in its original form. We are discussing Clive Barker material, and he must always have a demonic element to his tales, so detective work inevitably end up being secondary like in 1995’s "Lord of Illusions". Demons are what his films usually advertise, so when they appear the viewer wonders, “did we need a twist?”

Especially when Kitamura had presented a scene that should give any horror fan me a gorgasm 20 minutes in. The action sequences are where the direction shines making sure never to waste any use of the gore which allows for an awesome climax too each scene. Otherwise, there was a lot of extra time taken for each shot which drags the film a bit. These shots are beautiful with their selective lighting, but just because the crew took a lot of time to get the scene to look great, does not mean you have to shoot the hell out of them.

The actors do a great job presenting the film. Cooper does what Ryan Reynolds tries to do with each one of his dramatic roles. That is presenting his straight character with a degree of arrogance that his comic characters seem to possess. It makes the viewer root for him instead of shouting at the screen, “you are only as valid an actor as Dane Cook is.” Vinnie Jones is awesome as Mahogany being the mysterious, unbeatable fellow who leaves us wondering what his story is.

The Midnight Meat Train misses a lot of chances to be the perfect slasher flick, but unforgettable horror sequences make this a must view by the genre’s fans. The DVD offers a commentary track by Clive Barker and Ryuhei Kitamura which may explain the abuses of talent, along with featurettes including one about Barker. These make the purchase of the DVD a meaty banquet for Barker’s fans, but only a shameful treat for any other film goers. The Midnight Meat Train is enjoyable, but not because it is a cinematic gem.