Sunday, December 30, 2012

Organ

Organ - 1996 - Japan - Horror/Splatter

Organ is a bizarre little film.  It revolves around two central characters, one an undercover cop assigned to infiltrate a criminal human organ harvesting/selling operation labeled the "slaughterhouse", the other being a biology teaching with some really weird shit going on within his laboratory.

Within the first 10 minutes of this film I started to lose track of characters and was struggling to piece together what the hell was going on.  People were dropping dead and murdering each other left and right without any obvious motives, and the locations and lead characters would switch back and fourth from each other rapidly, leaving me quite confused.  I was torn wondering whether I was "supposed" to understand what was happening.

 Being a fan of surrealist cinema I find that these type of films are sometimes more enjoyable if you don't hurt your brain trying to decipher this madness the entire duration of the film, and just go with it and enjoy it for what it is instead, so that's what I did.

On top of all this weirdness, this film is strangely paced as well.  Much of it was very slow moving, yet that was occasionally interrupted by a sudden lightning paced massacre of almost every character in the scene.  These scenes are some of the most redeeming bits in the film in my opinion.

This film is particularly notorious for being a gory video nasty amongst many horror fans.  I had heard much hype about it's high levels of the red stuff.  Perhaps its just that I'm a seasoned gorehound who's sat through all the nastiest of films over the years, but I found it didn't quite live up to the hype regarding the blood n' guts.  Most of the gore in this flick shows up as green or yellow oozing, pus filled infections. There's a scene or two that closely resemble some parts from Mermaid In a Manhole (from the outrageously violent Guinea Pig series out of Japan). This film is most certainly gross, and the ultra slimey makeup FX are pretty cool to look at if you've got a strong stomach, but its not all that shocking to be honest.

So if your a fan of weird films and aren't afraid of a bit of gross shit, I'd say give this one a watch.  Perhaps you will enjoy it more if you indulge in some grass beforehand.

You can find the DVD used for super cheap on Amazon - Organ DVD

Plot - 5/10
Action - 6/10
Blood n' Guts - 7/10
Ooze and slime - 8.5/10
OVERALL - 6.5/10




"I've got caterpillars in my belly."  Good luck making any sense of this.
 Giving ol' stumpy some sedatives
 That doesn't look so good.  You should see a doctor about that.
 Yeah, I think that's infected!
 Having a blast!



Friday, December 28, 2012

Stone Cold

Stone Cold - 1991 - Action/Exploitation

Within the first 60 seconds of watching Stone Cold I knew I was in for something special.  It opens with a supermarket holdup scene similar to that of Cobra (a personal favorite action flick of mine), introducing our star, former pro football player Brian "The Boz" Bosworth.  This is his first feature length film of his acting career, and he appears on the screen with a gloriously awful leather jacket and mullet to end all mullets, he proceeds to whoop all asses in sight and deliver some cringe-worthy one liners... and it's all ridiculousness from then on.

 This is a biker movie of epic proportions.  Brian Bosworth is employed by the FBI to infiltrate and dismantle a nasty, Nazi biker gang, headed  by Lance Henriksen of Pumpkinhead and Aliens fame, accompanied by a young William Forsythe, playing his usual entertaining and overacted "insane/unstable bad guy" role.  Their biker compound is filled with over the top tough guys and high caliber ladies showing their tits, looks like a real party.  As for a plot beyond that, don't expect much.

One of this film's most redeeming values is its level of exaggerated masculinity and mile high testosterone levels, an aspect that I find essential for a good cheesy action flick.  Bosworth's character almost seems to try a little too hard to seem tough at times, accompanied with his ridiculous outfits and awful mullet it's pretty hard to take seriously.  Henriksen's character is particularly badass however, he is more soft spoken and subtle than the rest of the rowdy biker gang.  This film is certainly not lacking badassery, even though some of it seems a little ham-handed.

The violence level in this one isn't particularly high, there certainly a decent body count and some good kills, but until the last act its not as faced paced as one would expect. 

Oh yeah, but there's explosions.  Everything that looks like it could explode, most likely will.  Never gets old if you ask me.
Anyways, I was quite happy with this absurd little film, certainly got some good laughs out of it and wouldn't hesitate recommending it to those who enjoy a big block of cheese with their action flicks.  Give it a watch


Plot - 3/10
Blood n' Guts - 2.5/10
Action - 7/10
Cheese - 8.5/10
OVERALL - 7.5/10

You can get the DVD here:  Stone Cold DVD

William Forsythe plays William Tell with beer

William Forythe returns fire
Bosworth plays with his pet reptile....

Henriksen looking cool, The Boz looking hilarious.
explosions, explosions, and more explosions!