Cool Air (imdb)
H.P. Lovecraft adaptations aren’t nearly as sparse or deserving of hype as a lot of Lovecraft fans might have you believe, but the good and worthy adaptations are few and far between. There has been quite a resurgence of interest lately thanks mostly to Lurker Films and the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, whose The Call of Cthulhu is both a worthy adaptation and an homage to the silent film era that Lovecraft himself would have been familiar with. Cool Air doesn’t seem to be one of Lovecraft’s better-known works, largely because it doesn’t contain much in the way of references to his beloved mythos, but it’s still a strong and creepy story and film. The story centers around a young writer (who we’re not so subtly led to believe is Lovecraft himself) and his relationship with the mysterious doctor upstairs, who always keeps his room at a nice, chilly temperature, hence the title. While much of Lovecraft’s work is rooted in a sense of wonder and a reverence for the unknown, Cool Air is actually pretty life-affirming for a horror piece. The production values and acting are very good for a low-budget film, and the featurette on the making of the film is both informative and interesting.
Castle of Cagliostro (imdb)
I remember first coming across Lupin III back when Adult Swim was still fairly new. I wasn’t hooked on the series, but I thought it was pretty charming and always watched it if I ran across it flipping channels. It was a short while later that I saw my first few Hayao Miyazaki films (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and The Castle in the Sky), and a short while later still that I discovered that the paths of Lupin and Miyazaki had crossed and resulted in a feature film considered to be a classic anime film. The Castle of Cagliostro is a great film that combines the smart-alec and savvy cool of Lupin’s world with the fantastical whimsy of Miyazaki, as Lupin attempts to rescue a mysterious princess from an unwanted marriage at the hands of a counterfeiting count. If you’ve enjoyed Lupin’s adventures before, this is a fine continuation, but even if you’ve never experienced the hijinks of the world’s greatest thief, this is as good a place to start as any.
First Blood (imdb)
I’ve seen bits and pieces of the Rambo movies, but I’ve never sat down and watched one from start to finish, so this marks my attempt to watch the whole shebang. First Blood is a damn good action film by any standards, and stands tall as one of the highlights of the 80′s action boom that made household names out of several musclebound actors who really aren’t all that great as actors. That’s easily the biggest downfall of First Blood: Sylvester Stallone has no emotional depth as an actor unless he’s just had the shit beat out of him and/or beat the shit out of someone else to the point that his mush-mouthed warble can pass as a display of emotion. Easily the worst scene of First Blood is Stallone’s breakdown at the end, which is more likely to inspire a sigh than sympathy. But that aside, the action sequences are excellent and the story is appropriately “over the top”, making it a great experience for action fans. There’s an incredibly lame DVD feature that lets you view certain scenes through some sort of glorified “Rambo-vision” that completely and totally sucks. An overlay props up and gives you computer-readout types of information on distances, potential dangers, and enemies. It’s incredibly retarded on its own, but when you imagine that the folks who developed this patent-pending claptrap were actually able to convince Lionsgate that it was good enough to include on the DVD release, it becomes mind-bogglingly absurd.
Super Inframan (imdb)
I’m a total sucker for so-called “tokusatsu” or Japanese “special effects” series (Ultraman in particular) and related kaiju entertainment, and have more than a passing interest in kung-fu, so combining the two in a brightly-colored, fight-filled 90-minute movie feels like Saturday morning all over again. When alien invaders attempt to take over Earth, it’s up to Rayma to undergo a transformation into Super Inframan in order to save the day and kick lots of alien ass doing it. The story is essentially your average tokusatsu plotline stretched to the 90-minute mark, but that’s not a bad thing, since there are always new and reasonably interesting monsters showing up to get the hell beat out of them. If you’re not smiling when Super Inframan flies across the screen to delier a “Lethal Kick”, then you’re taking life too seriously. The English dub on the DVD is mono and pretty unimpressive, though I did pick out one choice nugget of dialogue as having been sampled by the camp-influenced space/surf band Man or Astro-Man. Altogether a highly entertaining movie if you’re at all interested in the genre.
The Trials of Henry Kissinger (imdb)
I had no idea this was coming from Netflix, as they’ve been in the bad habit of skipping the first few films in my queue lately (not even high-demand new release stuff) in order to send me irrelevant stuff that’s been lingering in my queue for the two years I’ve been a subscriber. This documentary is based on a book by Christopher Hitchens, and is a pretty dry experience unless you’ve got a hard-on for history. It does present its case backed up with enough facts to lend credence to the damning accusations thrown against a man who has enjoyed a ridiculously large amount of power and celebrity despite some very murky ethics, morals, and justifications for his actions.
