BITE-SIZED: Turkeyshoot (Brian Trenchard-Smith, 1982)

In the future, a group of political prisoners (led by Steve Railsback and Olivia Hussey) find themselves jailed at a concentration camp deep in the jungle.

Their only option for escape is to take part in a sadistic game where they will be hunted by the cold-blooded warden (Michael Craig) and his friends.

Turkeyshoot was the first Ozploitation movie I ever saw - I picked up the DVD after watching Not Quite Hollywood.

I haven’t watched it in years.

Weirdly, the movie remains as watchable as it did the first time I watched it.

I watched it right after Death Race 2000 and I have to say, I think Turkeyshoot is a more entertaining watch.

The violence is over-the-top (and the special effects are a little hokey) but it is gruelling enough that it remains ever-so-slightly disturbing. 

The key factor in defining the movie's tone are the performances by the antagonists. 

As the leads, Railsback and Hussey play the stakes with no irony, but the actors playing their hunters seem to be more dialled into what the movie ends up being.

Roger Ward and Gus Mercurio are appropriately despicable as camp guards, and Noel Ferrier adds a dash of snobbery to Secretary Mallory, the government official who uses the hunt to satisfy his worst desires. 

While Carmen Duncan is iconic as the over-sexed blue blood Jennifer, on this rewatch Michael Petrovitch stood out as Tito, who comes fully armed with machine guns, bazookas and a wolf man (Steve Rackman). Petrovitch's preening, childish glee is hilariously out of place, and his final orgasmic grin as he takes a machete to the noggin sums up the movie.  

The villains are campy but I still found them somewhat creepy. Part of it has to come down to how the actors throw away their lines, in the face of any and all depravity. Michael Craig is a deadpan delight as the straight man to his guests' bloodlust.

There is a certain dark humour to the violence, but that has to do with the movie's sense of pace.

Apparently the film experienced major production problems - a big budget cut - which feed into the movie’s momentum.

There is no-frills approach to the storytelling which gives the movie its energy. It also means the movie runs out before it gets too dour or boring. 

Battletruck (Harley Cokeliss, 1982)

In the future, a world war has led to an energy crisis. Scavengers and warlords claw for control of precious gasoline.

One such warlord is Col. Jacob Straker (James Wainwright), a former soldier who thunders around the countryside in a massive armoured truck.

When he begins terrorising a small community, he ends up in conflict with a mysterious loner, Hunter (Michael Beck), on a motorbike...

The filmmakers claim that they had come up with the idea for Battletruck before Road Warrior came out.

If so, the similarities are striking: 

The movie is centred around a community terrorized by a former military unit who have become land pirates, stealing whatever they need with their heavily armoured vehicle. The community are assisted by a loner who rejects them until circumstance forces them together. 

Battletruck was shot in Otago in New Zealand. 

It is well-photographed and while the production is not massive, there is a sense of scope and detail to the mise-en-scene that makes it more interesting. 

It lacks the sense of immersion of offscreen story that benefits Mad Max, but it feels worn and lived-in, rather than a simple imitation.

Michael Beck was fine as the taciturn lead of The Warriors. As a member of an ensemble, his low-key performance gels. On his own here, Beck is not bad but he is no GIbson.

I watched an interview with the director Harley Cokeliss and he revealed that his original casting choice was Ed Harris. That little nugget of knowledge rattled around my brain for the entire runtime.

Otherwise, the film is pretty well-cast.

Future Cheers star John Ratzenberger plays a local inventor and the late, great Bruno Lawrence plays a sadistic member of the roving gang.

The standout is James Wainwright as the villain, Straker - he brings a robust physicality and surface charm that is chilling. 

With his indifference to the lives of the people around him and robotic focus on his goals, he gives the movie a charge of real danger that the rest of the movie cannot match.

When a prisoner tries to talk around a direct question, Straker cuts his throat and repeats the question to the next man.

While the other characters have their vague analogues in the Mad Max universe, his performance comes the closest to the unpredictable menace of Max’s various nemeses. 

Because the movie is based around gasoline, and it takes place after a world war, it is easy to read Battletruck as a side-story in the broader Mad Max universe. 

The truck is lumbering and not as sexy a villain as the various vehicles of the Mad Max flicks, but it is pretty menacing, particularly in how the filmmakers rely on  the sounds of its engines to signal its arrival.

The third act picks up with some solid action but the movie is a little too by-the-numbers. We get a love story and a weak-willed traitor, but it all feels rote.

The movie is a little too respectable as well - it lacks the weirdness and gonzo energy of similar low-budget films.

The movie is worth checking out for James Wainwright’s performance, but otherwise Battletruck is not entertaining enough.  

BITE-SIZED: Monster Trucks (Chris Wedge, 2016)

When an oil company drills into an underground water system, they they a new organism.

When a few members of the new species escape, the company is determined to capture them so that they do not have to report a new endangered species (which would shut down their drilling).

One of these escapees finds its way to a scrapyard where local teen Tripp (Lucas Till) works. 

After finding ‘Creech’ hiding inside his car, the pair become fast friends and start working on a scheme to find Creech’s family and get him home.

A warm throwback to the kids movies I grew up with, Monster Trucks is a solid creature feature that  is better than its box office would suggest.

It hits all the familiar tropes:

• A kid from a troubled background who dreams of escaping his surroundings

• the creature abandoned and lost in a new world who he forms a bond with

• The corporate bad guy intent on capturing the creature for his own ends 

  
  

The movie even features an environmental message that would not feel out of place in a nineties kids movie.

Creech is a fun blend of cute and Cthulhu. With his big eyes, teeth and slimy arms he resembles a weird blend of shark, salamander and octopus.

Nothing about the movie is original, yet it all works.

The acting and the effects work are solid, and director Chris Wedge (of Ice Age fame) keeps the whole confection moving at a clip.

If you are sick of superheroes and want to introduce your young'ins to something else, Monster Trucks might do the trick.

OUT NOW: All The Old Knives

Eight years after they failed to prevent a terrorist attack, two spies (Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton) reconnect over dinner to figure out if a mole tipped off the attackers.

What starts as an interrogation soon turns personal as the former agents and lovers try to figure out the truth.

Everything about this movie sounded intriguing.

First thing, the title is great. It evokes danger and violence in a way that feels familiar - like one of those potboilers you buy to read on a plane. 

The combination of the actors and a two-hander dynamic also sounded promising. 

While it is more often a set up for the stage, when it is done right, there is nothing more exciting than watching the shifting power dynamics between two performers in an extended scene.

I wish All The Old Knives were more involving.

The cast are good, but the movie lacks energy and the flashback plot structure does not lead to any revelations

One reason might be that if you have seen one movie about double-crossing spies, you might have figured it out already.

Or since the movie only has only two key characters, you expect one of them to turn out to be a bad ‘un. It is always a problem when you have characters who are established deceivers - it puts the viewer on edge about the characters as they are initially established.

Despite its pedigree, All The Long Knives is never as tense or profound as it wants to be.   

Lying and Stealing (Matt Aselton, 2019)

Art thief Ivan (Theo James) is looking for a way out of the game. Making it harder is that he is indentured to a local crime boss (Fred Melamed) who picks his next score.

When he meets an actress-turned-con artist Elyse (Emily Ratajkowski), Ivan finds a partner to help him complete one last job that will allow both of them to leave their current careers behind.

A few weeks ago, I rewatched a movie I used to love: I Come In Peace, a low-budget sci-fi action movie starring Dolph Lundgren. 

It is not a great movie, but there is something about the low-budget presentation, and how the filmmakers manage to create an effective genre piece within those limitations, that makes it more fun to watch. It is no masterpiece, but it succeeds at what it sets out to do.

The success of movies like I Come In Peace is worth highlighting because they are operating in a space now held by major studios with massive budgets. In its own humble way, these kinds of low-budget genre movies democratic-ize and demystify the process of filmmaking.  

Lying and Stealing is not a great movie. I was not even sure I wanted to write about it.

But I could not shake the feeling that this modest caper was a spiritual sibling to I Come In Peace.

The 2019 iteration of a low budget genre movie, it is not great, but there is something about the way the components are put together, without the bells and whistles, but with just enough invention and intelligence that it is entertaining.

These movies are associated with money, both onscreen and off:

You expect an all-star cast in exotic locations. Instead you have Theo James and Emily Ratajkowski in Los Angeles.

Perversely, the lack of resources gives the movie a sense of verisimilitude.

The lack of excess in the miss-en-scene draws attention to the characters’ isolation and the hoarding of wealth.

If this movie was big budget, the stars’ lack of star power would stand out. 

But because this movie is made on a modest canvas, they fit. 

Overall, within the bandwidth of this movie, I think they are pretty good.

James is probably more together than the character as written, but he is fine as a handsome blank who can slip in and out of his wealthy prey’s homes.

Ratajkowski is a little exposed during the climax - she does not show the level of anxiety the character is supposed to have. There is a bizarre inconsistency that almost feels like the filmmakers chose the wrong takes, because her performance changes drastically between shots.

She is also sharing the screen with the movie’s MVP, Fred Melamed, who lifts every scene he is in. He brings genuine menace to the film, and I wish the movie could have made him more of an antagonist.

Isiah Whitlock is also good as the FBI agent who gets on Ivan’s tail. Once again it is a case of a great actor in a minor role that does not give them much to do.

Despite their limitations, I am kind of interested to see if James and Ratajkowski can get some more roles like these under their belts - they may not be great, but they know what kind of movie they are in and they are not mannequins. 

Overall, I kinda liked Lying and Stealing - probably because of low expectations, but it is better than the unappealing title.

Christine (John Carpenter, 1983)

Like any 21-year-old in 1978, Christine is obsessed with rock’n’roll. She is also looking for love.

The ‘57 Plymouth Fury has its headlights set on nerdy teen Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon).

And there is nothing he or his friends (John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul) can do about it.

I am a big fan of John Carpenter’s work, but this was one of the few of his flicks I have not seen. Ironically, it is also the only Stephen King book I have read.

Christine is not a great Carpenter movie, but Christine herself is top tier.

Whereas the novel complicates its villain by including the spirit of its former owner, the cinematic Christine is a pure Carpenter antagonist.

From the opening scene, in which she is introduced on the assembly line, to the strains of George Thorogood’s ‘Bad to the Bone’, we are left in doubt that Christine was bad from the beginning. 

While the movie is pretty earnest, that initial song selection establishes the fine layer of irony that gives Christine (and the movie) a little more life. 

A lot of this is down to the music. Carpenter is a filmmaker defined by his music, and while his score is fine, the movie comes alive in the selection of rock songs used to provide Christine’s ‘voice’.

The songlist is a list of tracks from Christine’s era of manufacture, and help to give the car her vindictive, darkly mordant personality (Little Richard’s "Keep A-Knockin'" plays when an uninvited guest tries to open the door).

While the idea was later borrowed by the Transformers films, the use of songs for Christine feel more incisive in communicating her emotions, and her fixation on her new owner.

The scene where Christine reassembles herself to the tune of the Viscounts’ version of ‘Harlem Nocturne’ almost feels like a seduction, as she finally reveals herself to Arnie.

While the story could be seen as a metaphor for puberty and sexuality, or America’s obsession with cars, or a dark rebuke to eighties America’s obsession with the fifties, Christine is not really about anything more than what it says on the tin. 

It is handsomely produced, and feels of a piece with John Carpenter’s other films from this period, but it never rises above merely watchable.

As far as the performances, Keith Gordon is excellent as Arnie Cunningham. He manages the transformation from nervy wallflower to obsessed loner, although the film never really figures out the resolution in a particularly satisfying way. Arnie becomes Christine’s and becomes a side player during the third act, as his friends fight to destroy Christine.

Stockwell and Paul are fine as, respectfully, Arnie’s best friend Dennis and prospective love interest Leigh. As already stated, these characters are bystanders to Arnie’s downfall, and only become active in the climax. In the book, Dennis is the narrator of Arnie’s story, and that inner monologue gives more context and depth to the characters’ relationships. While the actors have a good rapport, the movie lacks the same sense of character investment.

Overall, Christine is elevated by the execution of its title character, but otherwise it is just solid. 

BITE-SIZED: The Car (Elliot Silverstein, 1977)

 A dark car is running over pedestrians in an isolated rural community.

It falls to local cop Wade (James Brolin) and his department to chase this speed demon down and find out who is behind the wheel...

Released in 1977, The Car takes the basic template of Jaws, swaps out the water for the open road and the killer fish for a killer car.

I watched this movie after John Carpenter's Christine, another killer car flick, and it might have been a better idea to watch it beforehand.

The Car is not a good movie. The dramatic storyline is just a group of vaguely defined characters reacting to the car amid their own boring lives. The acting is fine but the movie drags every time the titular car is offscreen.

Ala Jaws, the movie crisscrosses between car attacks with the police investigation and sequences of Wade’s relationship with his daughters and a local school teacher. Unlike Jaws, these scenes do not deepen our understanding of the characters, and feel like cheap ways to make us care about people who will die in the next scene. There is a subplot involving a local man (RG Armstrong) who abuses his wife which ends with said guy becoming the Quint of the movie, using his suspiciously large supply of dynamite to help Wade defeat the Car. It is bizarre.

Mixing the Jaws plot (small town terrorized by a monster) with a car almost makes the film feel like a dare. It almost reads as parody as our heroes try to dodge a vehicle that growls and lunges like an animal. 

And while the Car is a great antagonist, certain scenes come off as cartoonish rather than scary - the Car’s somersault(!) into the path of charging police vehicles is awesome, but not in the way the filmmakers intended.

Leonard Rosenman provides an atmospheric score, and Gerald Hirschfeld’s daylight photography - with its dutch angles and exaggerated use of perspective - adds to the movie’s uncanny vibe.

It is pretty cheesy, but on its own terms, The Car is pretty entertaining.