| Author | Message | ||
     John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
Lady P & I watched this last night and so in the true spirit of sharing / warning people off it here are a few of my thoughts this morning. It's basically one of those oddities that crop up from time to time that makes any normal person wonder why anyone would think this up, much less wish to contribute any amount of time money and energy to getting the thing made. Smash Cut is a tribute to the films of Herschell Gordon Lewis – not a pastiche but a tribute. Certainly there’s a fair amount of fake gore and a ludicrous plot, but this movie goes above and beyond the call, peppering the movie with in-jokes that only the most dedicated (ie obsessed) fan could possibly appreciate. I’m therefore suspecting that not many here will truly appreciate such moments as Lewis himself appearing under the name Fred Sandy, who executive produced Lewis’ Wizard of Gore, or a character called Kohlberg being done in with a harpoon (Stanford Kohlberg notoriously and allegedly made off with the profits of the original Blood Feast). There’s a private detective who’s obviously meant to remind us of the PI in The Gore Gore Girls and a bit where star David Hess turns up dressed in the garb HG wore when at very short notice he had to play (extremely badly) the part of an English sea captain in A Taste of Blood. Add in guest appearances by Michael Berryman and Ray Sager and I realise all of this tells you nothing about the plot but it will give a you a good idea of whether or not you’d want to spend 80 minutes of your life watching this. Intermittently funny (but when it is it’s hilarious, especially the fake movie posters that keep cropping up), Smash Cut is way, way better than the awful Wizard of Gore remake of last year, and as most of RCMB will have probably already guessed this is just my way of letting Zed know he’d probably love it. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
 I'm there, sir. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
Is it better than BLOOD DINER? That's the only other deliberate HG Lewis homage I'm aware of. | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 88.202.207.22 |
I admit I needed many of the gags explained to me, not being as familiar (coughobsessedcough) with the HGL oeuvre as our good Lord P. But I had loads of fun watching it independent of the in-jokes. I'd spent part of the day alphabetising the JLP film library, so perhaps I absorbed some of the sent-up films along the way. On tonight's bill: Dead Snow! Nazis AND zombies is just too good a combination to miss.  | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.176.6.55 |
Quite fancy the sound of SMASH CUT, although I've not watched any HGL since they first became available on R1 DVD many years back. DEAD SNOW was fun, I thought - be interested to hear what you guys think of it. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
I agree - DEAD SNOW was a lot of fun. Could have been better, though. There was something missing that I couldn't quite put my finger on. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
Lesbian milkmaids in black leather leaderhosen? | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
lederhosen even | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
Neither. But I think you're missing something vital...  | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Zed, do you mean he needs to get a life? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
A cigar to the beatnik looking individual in the corner.  | ||
| Mark West (Mark_west) Username: Mark_west Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.39.177.173 |
I enjoyed "Smashcut", especially the making-of with the revelation of how the car stuff was done. Good fun, if you like that kind of film, hard work if you don't (Alison gave up halfway through). | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
Apologies for the blatant plug, but you folk might be interested in the next issue of Pantechnicon when we get it sorted (late December). We've got an interview with Herschell Gordon Lewis - and I can tell you he's a real sweetie!  | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
That's the kind of plug I like Caroline! HGL always came across as quite fun in his DVD commentaries, but then most of the survivors from that era are good fun on those things. I remember a Harry Novak one where all he did was talk about the attributes of whichever actress was on screen at the time, and there's a Doris Wishman one where she gets into a fight with the person she's doing the commentary with | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.47 |
>>>Neither.<<< So do you mean that there are lesbian milkmaids in leather lederhosen in dead snow? |