Aug 25-31 Natasha Lyonne Week: There’s a new season of her weirdo mystery of the week coming out (I can’t remember the name rn, you can look it up), and she’s been steadily delivering chuckles for decades now.
Imogene Duncan (Kristen Wiig) was once a promising playwright, but now has a magazine writing job. She gets fired, her boyfriend leaves her, and she tries to kill herself, but really wants her boyfriend to save her. Instead, her friend Dara (June Diane Raphael! Hello people of Earth!) brings her to the hospital, and she has to be released to the care of her gambling addict mother (Annette Bening) and taken back home to New Jersey.
Directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini and written by Michelle Morgan, this has Imogene learn that her father (Bob Balaban) never died and never felt bad about leaving the family.
This is very much a sitcom, and luckily, Kristen Wiig would go on to do better things. You can play the spot Natasha Lyonne game like I did, wishing she were in the movie more than she is. Same as Matt Dillon, who is good, but almost not in this.
Originally made as Agowa gongpo (Crocodile Fangs), this is the story of Tony Akom (Nat Puvani) and John Stromm (Min Oo), two workaholic doctors always at odds with their wives, who are angry that they work so much. They decide to make up for it and take them on vacation, which is a major mistake, as they are dragged underwater by a crocodile mutated by nuclear testing into an unstoppable creature of wife-chewing destruction. Now, they must destroy it and join up with fisherman Tanaka (Manop Asavatep) and a photographer named Peter (Robert Chan Law-Bat) to make it happen.
When the English language version of this film was created by producer Dick Randall, numerous cuts were made. Out was the hurricane that opened the original movie. It was a new beginning shot by Randall in which a crocodile eats two naked women. This one movie didn’t have enough crocodile-human feasting for Randall, who added in a scene from Krai Thongin which three kids turn into a snake. And the ending, in which Tony threw dynamite into the crocodile’s gullet, was edited with Peter strapping himself with the TNT and swimming right into the giant mouth of the croc. Above all else, all Jawsrip-offs must end with the beast being blown up. That’s the rules.
What breaks the rules is that much like The Ghost Galleon, I can only imagine that some of the effects in this were created by a toy boat in a bathtub. Yet going even further, this has a reptile crawling all over it.
Original director Sompote Sands also made the aforementioned Krai Thong, as well as The 6 Ultra Brothers vs. the MonsterArmy, Hanuman and the Five Riders (a bootleg Kamen Rider) and Jumborg Ace & Giant.
A warning: This movie was condemned by the American Humane Association for a moment where a genuine crocodile is murdered on screen. This isn’t Italian, mind you. It’s from Thailand.
Director, writer, and actor Joe Hollow’s new film is all about Jack Russo (Hollow), who suffers from a severe case of writer’s block that he hopes can be resolved by a retreat to the woods of Quebec and a trip to his family home with his wife, Sienna (Debbie Rochon). She may have cheated on him with his best friend, she may have ruined their marriage — he may have ignored her, to be fair — but she’s also gotten involved with the Death Dealer (also Hollow), a demon who sends a VHS tape — Violent Love — in the mail marked “Inspiration.” As a writer, I get it — I know what it’s like to not know what to write next, but I’ve never watched a snuff tape to get it together.
There are two other demons, Mr. Grimm (yes, Hollow), who has a mirrored face that resembles another Canadian film, The Mask, and the laughing harlequin called Livina (Adriana Uchishiba), who is also involved in this, as well as moments taken from Driller Killer. There’s also Vivienne (August Kyss), a woman who decides to take her own life — a theme throughout this — but is given one more chance at life or something like it by the Death Dealer.
It’s easy to dismiss microbudget horror as cheap and poorly acted. Sure, most of it can be. But when it’s something interesting like this film, these movies can transcend budget and allow you to fully see the vision that its creator had in mind, even with limitations. Sure, some of the bad guys’ voices are hard to decipher, the editing is a bit all over the place, and sometimes things look really well-lit and color-balanced, and at others, like a basic cable movie, but so what? Experiencing low-budget films means leaving your mind open and being a bit more understanding, just like when we used to watch regional horror films.
Flesh of the Unforgiven is now streaming on Amazon Prime and Apple TV+. You can learn more at the official Facebook page.
Official synopsis: We’ve seen them fight, we’ve seen them chill, but in BABY ASSASSINS 3, we see Chisato (Akari Takaishi) and Mahiro (Saori Izawa) at the apex of their skills as they take on a brutally nihilistic freelance killer who aims to take their place atop the assassin food chain. Director Sakamoto Yugo and action director Sonomura Kensuke are back with the most exciting and dangerous chapter in the Baby Assassins saga to date. This time, it’s a fight for their lives.
The Baby Assassins films rawk mightily, with loads of incredible, beautifully choreographed martial arts set pieces and terrific performances by the two leads, Akari Takaishi as the highly extroverted Chisato and Saori Izawa as the more reticent Mahiro, both working together as a duo of professional killers. Obviously the third entry in the series, Baby Assassins 3 (though formerly titled Baby Assassins: Nice Days) finds writer/director Yugo Sakamoto delivering what may arguably be the most accessible of the trilogy. This is due in part to toning down the more annoying aspects of the characters’ personalities a bit — they are often more sullen and hot-tempered in the previous films — and some of the zaniness that goes along with that. But hey, the series wouldn’t have made it to a third entry if viewers didn’t love their chemistry.
Though this is certainly the darkest film in the trilogy, not to worry, as plenty of comedy is still in the mix to balance out the proceedings quite effectively. Sôsuke Ikematsu co-stars as unhinged freelance killer-for-hire Kaede Fuyumura, whose target for his 150th kill is the same as the girls’ next assigned job.
Action director Kensuke Sonomura delivers jaw-dropping fight choreography, including frenetic, mesmerizing set pieces, from close-quarters martial arts inside a tight hallway to wide-open gunplay sequences involving chases down multiple floors. Baby Assassins 3 is worth watching for its action alone, but the performances from Takaishi, Izawa, Ikematsu, and the fine supporting players are all highly commendable as well, and Sakamoto invests the relationship between Chisato and Mahiro with impressive dramatic weight.
Baby Assassins 3 is an absolute blast. Whereas in many action sequels we can expect the protagonists to survive whatever is thrown their way, making viewers less invested in fight scenes because of predictable outcomes, Sakamoto delivers tension multiple times in this entry as to whether either young woman will live to see Mahiro’s quickly upcoming 21st birthday. Action film devotees, action comedy fans, and Japanese comedy aficionados should consider Baby Assassins 3 a must-see viewing.
Baby Assassins 3, from Well Go USA, debuts on Digital and Blu-ray on August 26, 2025.
Aug 25-31 Natasha Lyonne Week: There’s a new season of her weirdo mystery of the week coming out (I can’t remember the name rn, you can look it up), and she’s been steadily delivering chuckles for decades now.
Back when I worked in a Toys R Us building bikes, Saturday night at 9 on WDVE, they always played “Detroit Rock City,” which I think was to cue us to the fact that it was time to spray your hair up and go to Donzi’s. Why a Pittsburgh station would play “Detroit Rock City” is a mystery, as is why they made local favorites of songs like Kip Addotta’s “Wet Dream,” Coney Hatch’s “Monkey Bars,” and “The Scotsman” by Bryan Bowers.
The cover band Mystery — Hawk (Edward Furlong), Lex (Giuseppe Andrews), Trip Verudie (James DeBello) and Jeremiah “Jam” Bruce (Sam Huntington) — have one dream: to see KISS at the Fox Theater in Detroit. Jeremiah’s religious mother (Lin Shaye) finds out and sends him away to Catholic school, but the guys — this all happens in one day and night — get him out when they get Father Phillip McNulty (Joe Flaherty) high. On the way, they pick up disco queen Christine (Natasha Lyonne) and make it to the show just in time to lose their tickets, which causes — get ready — hijinks to ensue.
Directed by Adam Rifkin and written by Carl V. Dupré, this has fun roles for Melanie Lynskey and Shannon Tweed, as well as a general good hang feeling. Also, the two young girls’ names are Beth and Christine, so if you like KISS, you probably got that. And you probably got that the girls that they hook up with tie them to kiss: Trip wants to be Ace and gets the spacey one; Jam is Peter Criss and dates Beth; Lex gets Christine, a Gene Simmons song and Hawk, who wants to be Paul Stanley, gets the super model. Well, it’s Gene Simmons’ wife, so maybe this theory should have been left in the IMDB trivia page, huh? Paul was married to actress Pamela Bowen, who is one of the religious protestors in the movie, and is now married to Erin Sutton.
This was the first movie to be released on DVD before VHS.
Along with Popeye the Slayer Man and Shiver Me Timbers, this is what happens when a property goes into the public domain.
ITN also made the Twisted Childhood Universe — Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, its sequel, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare and Bambi: The Reckoning — which reimagine your favorite storybooks as slashers. This is the same thing, with Johnny (Steven Murphy) popping out a bully’s eyes and getting the name Popeye and…man, I can make it through all the Amityville films and the Popeye and Mickey Mouse movies may be the end of me.
Olive (Kelly Rian Sanson) is Popeye’s sister in this, and final girl Tara (Emily Mogilner) kills her and Popeye, dispatching the sailor with a lawnmower because, well, look, I got nothing.
Did director William Stead and writer Harry Boxley ever see a single Popeye cartoon? Ah, Boxley also made Mouse of Horrorsand Cinderella’s Curse. It all makes sense now.
Look, I love a slasher. I just want people to consider, if they’re going to take a public domain property and make a movie, maybe they can make something different. But no, Popeye and Mickey Mouse are monstrous death machines, and in 2026, Pluto the dog, Betty Boop and Nancy Drew’s story “The Secret of the Old Clock” will all be killing people too.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Apologies for how late this is — catching up on so much work!
Hick Dunn (Chase Cargill) is just out of prison, can’t get a job and has promised to make it to his daughter’s birthday even if he has no clue how to make it happen. Soon, he meets Vince Campbell (Heston Horwin) and they form a friendship — as much as one can exist between these two guys — of one ex-con who fights his way out of everything and a con who is out to work everyone.
Starting as a web series in 2021, this is now a full movie, directed by Trevor Stevens and written by Horwin. It feels like a comic book universe that allowed Tarantino and all the 90s neo-noir that cashed in on his success to replace superheroes. With 24 hours to steal a car and take it to New Mexico, this is a buddy film that aims for more than its low-budget origins and succeeds beyond expectation.
Official synopsis: Graham Chapman stars as happily married Arthur Harris, who becomes suicidal when his wife suddenly up and leaves him. Trying and failing miserably to do the deed himself, when a peculiar handyman (BAFTA-winner Sir David Jason) turns up on his doorstep to offer his services, he enlists the help of this strange stranger to kill him instead, with shockingly hilarious results.
As a decades-long fan of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the various projects with which the members of its troupe have been involved, I was keen on checking out director Peter Medak’s 1978 feature The Odd Job starring Graham Chapman. Cowritten by Chapman and Bernard McKenna, the film is one of those comedies where you can tell what was meant to be funny, but the humor just doesn’t land successfully enough to garner many actual laughs.
Although the performances are generally fine — Richard O’Brien as the leather queen henchman of a gangster is a scene stealer — characters are often written or portrayed broadly, or seemingly just there for convenience, whether it be for attempts at laughs or to try to make the plot more absurd. Questions abound, such as why Harris would continue to want to commit suicide when a neighbor in his building attempts to seduce him the very night his wife left him, and why, after Harris’s wife returns home, he doesn’t simply try to let his would-be murderer know that the plan is off.
As a curiosity, The Odd Job is certainly worth a watch, as it is interesting to see what Chapman, McKenna, and Medak were attempting to pull off. Monty Python and Graham Chapman completists will definitely want to give it a look.
Chapman and McKenna were a bit more successful with 1983’s Yellowbeard, which saw Peter Cook join the duo as a co-writer.
Severin Films releases The Odd Job in its worldwide Blu-ray premiere on 25 August 2025, and the film will also be available on digital on Amazon Prime on the same date. The film is now scanned in 2K from director Peter Medak’s personal 35mm print and comes complete with a slew of special features. It’s available to pre-order now at https://severinfilms.co.uk/.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Apologies for how late this is — catching up on so much work!
During a fiery highlight performance by the metal band Iron Puppy, the lead vocalist and bassist Jeong-cheol’s long hair caught fire. How does a metal band continue with a short-haired singer? The fans have left, no one cares, so metal god O.G. Osborune (Xavier Liaudet) guides the band to a black hole and reveals a divine mission: to find hair from a virgin ghost and perform with it, therefore returning to all that is metal fame.
Directed and written by JEON Ah-hyun, this South Korean short combines loud music, video games, Japanese pop culture and so much more into quite the stew. It also made me very protective of my hair and thankful that it has stayed with me for so many decades.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Apologies for how late this is — catching up on so much work!
Lynch/Oz. Doc of the Dead. The People vs. George Lucas. 78/52.
Director and writer Alexandre O. Philippe has made so many good movies about movies and this — which explains the influence of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre — is just as good, if not better. Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King and Karyn Kusama all speak to what makes the film special to them, why it’s stuck in their heads and inspired their own work.
Many reviews of this film seem to make light of the fact that Chainsaw isn’t a critical darling. What do you expect of a movie with the tagline, “Who will survive and what will be left of them?” For me, it’s the reason I found my way into marketing, as the idea of those words sparked something in me that I couldn’t forget. That’s been my goal my whole career: to write words that talked others into things in the same way. The economy of that sentence, the images and ideas that it plays before your mind’s eye…it’s perfect.
A file stolen by organized crime, a movie that mainly played grindhouses and drive-ins for almost a decade, a film more frightening and bloody in the descriptions people had of it than what they really watched. A film made in the sun, in the heat of Texas, a movie where no one made money — other than that mob mentioned — for a decade or more. A film that maybe Tobe Hooper couldn’t live up to because he kind of made a Citizen Kane first time out.
Other reviews call out that Roger Ebert only gave Chainsaw two stars, or that people looked down on it and still do. Good. It’s the kind of movie that shouldn’t be safe. It’s a bastard: a grimy descent into the worst man can be, yet Leatherface basically just wants to work and be with his family. His evil isn’t evil; maybe the Sawyer family isn’t horrible, despite what they do. We just don’t understand their ways and should never try to be part of the strange, dark hallways of the world in which they live.
What do I know? I’ve seen Chainsaw so many times. I dressed as Leatherface for every haunted house my high school art club put on. I was fascinated by this documentary, which, instead of mixing up the talking heads, just gives you long conversations with each of them. This is like a good talk about a film you love with people who share your passion. What else did you expect?
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