Wolf Cop

Title – Wolf Cop

Language – English

Genre- action, werewolf

Inept and alcoholic policeman, Lou Garou goes out to investigate what he thinks are kids drinking in the woods and wakes up the following morning with a pentagram carved in his chest and no memory of what happened.  Things only get worse when, at the next full moon Lou finds himself turning into a werewolf. As well as having to cope with his new transformations Lou has to work out if his new situation has anything to do with the upcoming eclipses and the events around his father's death.

So, as the title says Wolf cop is about a cop who becomes a werewolf. In some ways it is similar to Teen wolf.  At the start of the film Lou is inept and useless at his job, he is constanly drunk and would rather spend his time at the bar than go out to do proper police work.  As the film goes on and thanks to the wolf transformation Lou starts to change and follow up on the calls that come In, he even takes it upon himself to start to investigate his transformation and any connection it may have to the events leading to his dad’s death.  I must state that the similarly to Teen wolf only go as far as the wolf’s effect on the main character (and may be the odd Easter egg), wolf cop is not a kids film and even with his new attitude Lou is still a useless cop (and never one plays basketball).

One of the more original things about Wolf cop is how the curse is passed on, unlike most other films the curse is not passed on by the bite of  another lycanthrope but by a ceremony.  There is a reason for the change but due to spoilers I can’t say why.

Of course we have to speak about the most important part of any werewolf film and this the transformation and wolf cop doesn’t disappoint. They change itself is more ‘Hemlock Grove’ than ‘American werewolf in London’ in that Lou sheds his skin ripping the wolf form out of his human one as a pose to his physical form actually changing and he leaves his shed skin at the scene of the transformation  He does however show the the change is very painful, like the transformation  in ‘ American werewolf’.  The wolf form itself is more humanoid looking like the wolf man or Beast from the X-Men movies.  It is nice to see the change more than once as there are a few films out there which seem to pore most of their budget into the first transformation and then it is never seen again.

The effects in the film are of a good standard overall, as well as the wolf we have the main villains (I’m not going to say too much about them for spoiler reasons) but also the hole feel to the film is good.  Again I have found with some films that the budget seems to get spent on the monster and nothing else but wolf cop looks the part all the way through.

Wolf cop could have been an over the top gore fest which would have taken away from the film,  there is a bit of gore and blood, it is a werewolf film after all  but it felt like the right amount

Schwarzesmarken

Title – Schwarzesmarken

Language – Japanese

Genre- Anime, War, Sci Fi

Schwarzesmarken is a 12 part anime series focusing on the 666^th battalion of the East German army

An alien invasion by a race known as BETAs in the 1980’s meant that east and west Germany never united.  East Germany is now on the front line of the war with the 666th battalion leading the defense.

On the face Schwarzesmarken looks like it’s going to be a generic alien invasion anime.  The 666th battalion (and a few others) pilot mech, which struck me as odd being as most of the other technology (except a couple of advanced missiles) are contemporary.  Most of the 666th pilots are familiar looking female characters complete with big breasts and skin tight flight suits and the remaining pilot is a loan male.  There is a second battalion( the werewolf battalion) that would normally act as the competition found in a lot of other amine and the invading aliens seem to be an unbeatable onslaught that, in most other anime would release bigger and stronger attacks, forcing the heroes to use a super weapon or they would keep pressing forward until the last couple of episode until a brave hero would sacrifice himself to find the secret to defeat them.  There is also an episode where the series almost turned into a ‘harem’ series.

As you watch Schwarzesmarken you begin to realize that it’s not going to be what you expect, the BETA invasion, although ever present mostly takes a back burner, acting as a plot device to add tension and as a way to bring in characters from other countries.  Instead of Mechs vs aliens we have politics, suspicion, conspiracies and incest.  The 666th battalion are the strongest defense force and one of the only mech squad that East Germany has.  Most of the army consists of the normal contemporary weapons, tanks, missiles & solders but these are not always effective against the BETA and this is when the mech forces are called in.  The 666th soon come into conflict with the Werewolf battalion who are the main force of the Stasi (the German secret service) and doubt is thrown on  Irisdina Bernhard, the leader of the 666th who is accused of killing her brother on the order of the Stasi.

The Stasi use the chaos of the BETA attack to make an attempt to take over East Germany and the 666th and some of the other characters need to decide who to trust and whether to side with the Stasi or to fight them and whether they should should try to stop the Stasi or put all their efforts in fighting the BETA.

Schwarzesmarken was a pleasant surprise with a strong story, a lot of action and good characters.  At some times Schwarzesmarken can be a bit hard going but it is well worth sticking with.

I watched Schwarzesmarken on Crunchyroll.

Justice League; The Flash point paradox

Title – Justice League; Flashpoint Paradox

Language – English

Genre- superhero, animated

On the anniversary of his mother's death/birthday Barry Allan (the Flash) wakes up to find that he has lost his powers and that a war is raging between the Atlantic's,  led by Aquamarine and the Amazon's,  lead by Wonder Woman that will destroy  the world.  Confused Barry goes looking for answers only to find his mother alive and that a lot of his friend don’t know who he, or the flash are.  To try to regain his powers Barry goes to find Batman for help only to find that it is not Bruce Wayne who is in the role but Thomas Wayne, Bruce’s father.  Thomas and Barry then set out to recruit a group of heroes to stop the war and find out why everything that Barry knew has now changed.

Flashpoint Paradox, which is based on the D.C. comics miniseries Flashpoint, could easily have become a standard ‘Time traveler tries to put history right’ storyline but most of the film centers  on the effects the war is having on the rest of the world and the underlying message is that no one wins in war.  We see that the war is causing suffering to anyone who is not involved in, England has been turned into the new Amazonian homeland and we don't see any of the original population.  Most of the world are living in fear of the Atlanteans new secret weapon and nether side consider any of the effects their actions have on anyone else.

We are given an interesting look at alternative versions of the D.C. characters although I’m not too sure about the reason given for changes made to the characters before the change in the timeline.  Overall Flashpoint Paradox is a great film and D.C. do seem to be able to do alternative universe stories well.  It was also nice to see a D.C. story with a main character other than Batman, Superman or Wonder woman.

I wouldn’t recommend Flashpoint Paradox for younger children as it is quite  violent and some of the more well know characters do get  killed off. 

Gatchaman, Death Notes and rhinoceros

Gatchaman Crowds - Insight

*Contains Spoilers*

At the time of writing we are on episode 9 of the second season of Gatchaman Crowds and I am continued to be impressed.  If you're not familiar with the series you still may have hear the name ‘Gatchaman’ which was an anime/cartoon that was around in the 1980’s that went by a number of different names, depending on where in the world you lived.  You could have known it by:

G-Force

Battle of the planets

Eagle Riders

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman

The 80’s series followed a team of heroes who fought space aliens and donned bird themed costumes.  The Series followed a ‘monster of the week’ format in the same style as Power rangers or Terrahawks where we see the enemy send a monster to attack  earth and the Gatchaman team would fight and defeat it.  Gatchaman Crowds is not the 80’s series, the hero’s still, occasionally, transform into costumes, some of which are bird themed but gone are the weekly monsters, replaced with a series long threat and characters who scheme and plot to their own ends.  And we don't just get one scheme, in the second season we start with a terrorist group who want to get rid of the crowds which are blue or red creatures which can be summoned by their users to help them in anything.  We also have a new visiting alien, Gelsandra who becomes obsessed with  making humans happy and ‘one’.  The crowds are soon remove to make way for the new story but i think they will make a return by the end of the series.

As i stated above we are now on episode 9 and I find myself drawing similarities first to ‘Death Note’, an anime and now live action series from Japan about a boy who finds a book which will kill anyone whose name is written in it (A very basic synopsis I know, I’ll cover more later) but also I found myself comparing Gatchaman to the play ‘rhinoceros’ by Eugene Ionesco.  Gatchaman contains the themes of sociological change and individuality with a number of characters whose’ gender is questionable, I have to admit I was unsure of Rui Ninomiya’s gender for most of the first season.  In Episode 8 we are introduced to the Kuu-sama, creatures that are only concerned with making humanity (or at least Japan) one, meaning that they want a society where everyone is happy but also of one mind.  Anyone who disrupts this oneness is swallowed by the Kuu-sama.  This is where Gatchaman is similar to ‘Death Note’.  In ‘Death Note’ Light Yagami is using the titular book to make a ‘perfect’ society by killing off criminals, thus making most people feel safer and scarring anyone who would consider a criminal act.  As ‘Death Note’ progresses it is questioned where Kira (the name given to Light by the public) will stop, if he starts punishing lower crimes this may affect more of the normal people.  This point is expanded in ‘Gatchaman Crowds’, when the Kuu-sama start absorbing people it is those who are social problems, the people who play their music loud at night and the people who molest women on the tube train but it soon expands to anyone who doesn’t want to doesn’t want to do the same as a group which leads to people joining in with activities not because they want to but because they want to but because they are afraid to do anything different.  We also see the same disregard for the current law enforcement that starts to happen in ‘Death Note’, in Death Note there are a lot of the normal population who start to side with Kira over the police because he is seen to be doing something about the rising crime where the police appear to be powerless and in Gatchaman we see the population turning against the Gatchaman team who are a law enforcement team where aliens are concerned.  Even when the Kuu-sama start to absorb people the majority of the population  react by ignoring the Gatchaman’s warnings because the affected people can be seen to deserve it.

As I have said Gatchaman Crowds also follows covers the subject of individuality and fitting in which is where the comparison with the play ‘rhinoceros’.  There are a few different  groups/identities in Gatchaman, the most obvious are the Gatchaman themselves who are known as the Gatchaman even in their civilian identity but the character within the group some of which are aliens.  As I've already mentioned one of the team members O.D. is a famous cross drag queen who is also a Co host on a popular T.V. show who questions his identity when a second drag queen is brought onto the show.  I found Gatchaman became similar to 'Rhinoceros' with the introduction of the Kuu-sama.  In 'Rhinoceros' people start changing into Rhinoceros (for no reason) and, although it is first seen as strange it becomes a new fashion with those who do not turn being seen as strange and uncool even though it not known what is causing it or if it is dangerous.  This is the same reaction with the Kuu-sama, to begin with no one knows where they come from but, when it is found that they make people feel better about themselves and happier people just accept them and try to make anyone who doesn't accept them.  The comparison is continued when you consider the earlier in the series the public chose to stop using the crowd so, instead of changing from person to rhinoceros we have the change from crowds to Kuu-sama.

Gatchaman Crowds is a good thought provoking anime which uses science fiction to bring across interesting points about society and human culture. 

John Carter

Title - John Carter
Language - English
Genre - Sci-fi

Characters

John Carter - Our hero, an earth man & a bit of a rogue

Dejah Thoris - A Red Martian princess

Tars Tarkas - A Green Martian warrior

Sab Than - A red Martian, our villain (kind of)

John Carter is a Disney film based upon ‘The Princess of Mars’ by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan and follows John Carter a soldier in the American confederate army who finds himself transported to Mars.

I have to say that when I started to watch John Carter I was unsure of what to expect as most of the review’s I had read had said how bad it was but I have to disagree with them.

The film is not entirely faithful to the book but it keeps the same feel. For example When John is transported to Mars in the book he is chased by Native Americans into a cave where he experiences a strange sensation, hears a creature behind him and then passes out to wake up on Mars, where as in the film he is chased into the same cave but he finds a dying Martian who is attempting to return to Mars but who ends up sending John instead, this is all part of a slightly new story line which does work well in the film.

There are some quite funny moments in John Carter some of which are brought from the book.  When John first arrives on Mars he doesn’t know where he is and so doesn’t expect the difference in gravity resulting in his comedic attempts to move, this scene is played for laughs but also sets up  things for further in the film.  I’ve read that this scene in the book was part of what influenced the creation of Superman who, when he first appeared couldn't fly but could leap tall buildings with a single bound and, when seeing it on the screen it is easy to how the two could be linked.

Another good thing about the film is the portrayal of  Dejah Thoris who is a Martian princess who is being forced into marriage for political reasons.  Although she is being forced to marry someone she doesn’t want to she is not portrayed as needing saving and shows, more than once that she can stand on her own to feet.  It’s worth noting that she is also depicted wearing more clothing than in the book although this is probably due to the film being a Disney film and so aimed a younger audience.

One thing worth mentioning are the effects.  One of the reasons John carter is slated in other reviews is the amount of money it cost to make but you can see that a lot of it went into the effects.  There are three intelligent humanoid(ish) races on Mars in the first book as well as the animals and in the film there is an extra race.  The new race and the red Martians are the most human so they would be the most easy to do but the four armed green Martians and the white apes of Mars needed to have some money spent on them otherwise they may have looked out of place or tacky and it was obvious that the money had been spent on all of the film and not just the main characters, this was shown in the baby green Martians.

One thing John carter avoids is the slight racist tone of the books which is a sign of the time they were written in although this was more obvious in the second book than the first.

Over all I found John Carter a quite enjoyable movie that would be fun to watch with the family.

 

Better keep an eye on the kids

Title - Village of the damned (1960)
Language - English
Genre - Horror

Characters:

Alan Bernard - an army man friends of the Zellaby’s

Gordon Zellaby - a professor

Anthea zellaby - Gordon's Wife

David Zellaby - Gordon’s son & leader of the ‘others’

Village of the damned is a film based upon ‘The Midwich Cuckoos’ by John Wyndham which has also been the inspiration for Stephen King’s ‘Under the Dome’.

The main theme of ‘Village of the Damned’ seems to be paranoia.  The film is set in the small English village of Midwich which seems to be out in the middle of the countryside.  The army are nearby practicing maneuvers and it is is hinted a few times in the film  (and more in the book) the the villagers are suspicious of what they are actually doing.  Every living thing passes out in Midwich village an event that some of the villager think was caused by the army testing some kind of new weapon but this is treated as more of an irritation.  The feeling of paranoia really starts when the women of Midwich begin finding out that they are pregnant, to begin with the connection with the pregnancies and the previous event are not noticed and so many of the men start thinking that their wives have been cheating on them and, as Midwich is only a small village there is suspicion around.  Once the link has been found and it is revealed that all the women are pregnant the source of the paranoia is shift to the unborn children and village almost becomes divided by gender, the women are doing their best to keep their families together but we see that the men are reacting with fear towards them.  This is one of the scenes that makes ‘Village of the Damned’ an interesting film because it does not portray the women as weak victims or as eye candy, it shows that they are all different characters who are just trying to cope with the situation they find themselves in.

The mood improves slightly when the children are born and the seem to be normal but the fears soon return when the children s true nature is revealed.  The villagers try to take control of the children  but soon find that even the army is powerless and that other countries have taken very drastic action to solve the problem.

The question that is raised is should the villagers even try to force the children to follow the same rules as them.  They are obviously a different creature to the villagers and most of what they do is to defend themselves, the children know that, for the most part  they are superior to the rest of the villages but they do seem to know that they are making some of the villagers uncomfortable.  In one scene we see that the children are aware that they are making the shop owners nervous and they say that they will arrange someone else.  Apart from the facts that the children over react to the perceived threats they do seem to be trying to keep themselves to themselves and this would mean that the real bad guys are the villagers who are reacting mainly from fear.

The Village of the Damned is a good film, relying more on atmosphere than on scares and jumps and raises a few good questions.

She's not a barbie girl in a vampires world

Title - Killer Barbies (aka Killer Barbys & Vampire Killer Barbys)
Language - English Dub (original Spanish)
Genre - horror, Vampire

Characters:

Mario - Band member

Flavia - Band Member

Rafa - Band Member

Silvia - Band Member lead singer

Billy - Band Member

Baltasar -  mad Monk

Arkan - the carer/lover of Condesa

Condesa - an ancient countess/singer

Pipa - A Dwarf

Pipo - A Dwarf

The Killer Barbies are a Spanish Rock Punk band and this was their first film.  As far as i can tell there is one other.

At first Killer Barbies struck me as quite a generic vampire/slasher film in most.  We have a group of young adults, in this case the members of the Killer Barbies, who are traveling  somewhere.  They go down the wrong road which is a dirt track and then come off the road, damaging their van.  They then meet a strange man who invites them to spend the night in his castle which is, of course inhabited by a vampire.  The group split up, some go to the castle and two stay behind in the van.  It’s so standard that i could even tell you who first people were to get killed and, if you’d seen any other slasher films it wouldn't be a spoiler.  I won’t,  just in case it’s your first horror film.

It’s this style that does lead to some of the strangeness of the film though.  They are obviously trying for the gothic feel of a vampire film but some things are slightly off.  The castle is not what you’d assume.  Instead of a gothic grey stoned building with towers and a portcullis we have a square whitish building which is referred to in the film as looking like a convent or prison.  Keeping with the gothic nature of the film we are told that the castle/convent is haunted by a mad monk whose origin story sounded like something take from ‘a nightmare on elm street’ but the problem was it was hard to tell which character was meant to be the monk, the way he told the tale I first thought it was Arkan but i think it was supposed to be Baltasar.

Some of the aspects of the house also seemed a bit unnecessary, for instance there is a ‘Chess Room’, a room with a black & white tiled floor and a couple of chess pieces and for some reason a crib with a creepy baby doll in it. I know they are probably trying to set a creepy scene but the room just seems out of place in the castle and the film.

The characters are an interesting mix.  First off we have the killer Barbie’s (or Killer Barbys depending on what version of the film you have) they are a group of late teens (silvia gives her age as 19) who would fit in with any slasher.

Then there is Arkan when i first saw him I assumed he was our Van- Helsing type but no he’s the one who feeds the vampire.  Which makes Balthasar seem out of place, he is our Igor/Renfield or slasher and he would be better served without Arkan who seems to be there to for fill a romantic roll that never actually appears.  Then we have Pipa & Pipo to twin (I think) dwarfs who are Balthasar’s assistance and possibly meant as comic relief.

The we have Condesa our vampire.  It’s never said that she is undead and she is never actually referred to as a vampire.  She is more of an Elisabeth Bathory character who needs blood to stay young although for some one who claims to be  over a hundred years old she does seem to lack any sense of self preservation.

If you add all of this to film that doesn't seem to know if it’s night or day,  a smoke machine that doesn’t seem powerful enough to reach all of the sets, a film that had to change the spelling in its title due a certain toy manufacturer complaining and dubbing the just doesn't seem right (in the version i had.  The film should have been Spanish and I could only get a dubbed version) and you would expect a mess but, in true B movie style Killer Barbies works. As you’d expect in slasher/vampire film the gore and dead body effects are good, the story makes enough sense, the sex fits the narrative (& there's quite a bit) and the acting to just the right side of naff and over the top.  This is all helped along by half decent characters, the female leads are not the normal helpless type that are there just to scream and die, although one does end up running through the woods in nothing except silver knee high boots.

If you have a spare couple of hours and want something that’s not too taxing give give Killer Barbies a watch but only if you're not offended by nudity, both male and female.