mural f' EVE"? " / THE LIST OF ADRIAN MESSENGER (PG) 95min ’ifl‘fiffl’l’rf'l‘: [JV/[J “With
John Huston"; playful lflfrf’) thriller is the solution to a regular trrvra guestion at film gui//es: which inovre features the combined talents of Kirk Douglas. f'rank Sinatra. Burt
l arrcaster, Robert Mitchum and lorry Curtis? Apart from Douglas, who plays four roles. all the other stars only appear under heavy make up, reiiroved for a brief curtain call at the end.
()therwrse. fire 1 rs! of Adrian Messenger is the strangest of birds. Shot in stark black and white. rt features George C Scott in hrs first leading role as a retired member of the British secret seiyice who investigates the names on a list left behind by a friend who dies in a plane crash. No stranger to directorial indulgence. l-luston pads out the tame drawrng room intrigues wrth extended scenes of foxhunting. hrs p; ssron of the time. Clearly a fun project for cast and crew. Huston's film remains an engaging trifle for modern audiences. Minimal extras.
(Eddie Harrison)
HORROR WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE (18) 78min (Optimum DVD rental retail) .0.
A kind Of cannibal ver8ion of The Blair Witch PI'O/eCt. this low- budget outing follows four characters into New Guinea as they pursue the trail taken many years before by Michael Rockefeller, the heir to the Rockefeller fOrtune. Our four unSympathetic characters (two men and two women: one
couple sanctirirrMinus. the other pair lflflllli')‘:'t'. léty‘élirfml‘n treliev‘: that If they can find hrrn airye they may have a sr,oop on their hands.
lhe lo.‘.' budget aesthetic has advantages: the absence of music and the presence of a camera that limits perspective create a sense of menace in form as readily as content. But this also echoes back to Ruggero Deodato's Carrnrha/ Holocaust. a film that does more to contextualise the horrors of cannibalism, and the complacency of Western points of vrew. lhe strengths of this film are also its weaknesses. Jonathan lhe Punrsher i’lOflSlOlgll'E; film is better than many a horror film full of cliches. but not as good as the best that so intelligently transcend them. thias include director's commentary. (Tony McKibbinl
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THE SERPENT (15) 117min (Metrodome DVD retail)
Photographer Vincent's (Yvan Attali marriage is in its death throes: hrs wife wants to relocate wrth hrs two young children from France to Munich Without him. In the midst of all this. a ghost from hrs past. former classmate Joseph Plender rthe convrncingly psychotic Clovrs Cornrllacr shows up. a cheery. benevolent blast from the past. Of course. Plender rs not all
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COUP DE TORCHON
(15) 123min l()ptiinuin [)Vl) retarll 0..
Adapted from a Jim Thompson novel by Bertrand Tavernrer. this loose adaptation shows local police officer Lucien Cordrer lPhilrppe Norret) in an African colony in 1938 inefficiently doing his Job whrle being treated wrth contempt by all around him. Egged on by mischievous lover Rose rlsabelle Hupperti. Cordrer gets a little blood on hrs hands and doesn't guite know when to stop. Tavernier‘s strengths are usually character and atmosphere. and. ‘.'.rorkrng With hrs regular leading man Norret. the films at its best when grung us a sense of a man exhausted phySically and rirorall‘, by the corruption and neat of a colonial town. Not even/bod; liked the film when rt came Out in
DVD Reviews
The Terror
Do you like scary movres’? Fancy watching one on the rnternet” Beware! The shaky camcorder techirigues of Video pirates can iirake the latest Hollywood blockbuster look as scrambled as C/or/er‘fre/tf. So. rather than pick a fight wrth the copyrightlawman, why not delve into the weird and wonderful world of public domain? Older films, or ones that. for one reason ()r another. haven't had their copyright renewed are available in pristine digital prints. free to watch on your home computer So let‘s start wrth the classics. Check out (Jail lheodor Dreyer's riiisty,
foggy but supernaturally atrirospheric 1932 Vampyr
(httpn,ltiriyurlcom ygzilrW) or Bela Lugosi in the original /oriibie flick White Zombie (httpz, ltinyurlcom 2gS)p8]l. You can travel even further back to the Silent days wrth the original vampire actron on show If) FW tvlurriau's Nosferatu (httpzx tinyurlcom yuvagn). or sample the expr'essirrirrstir: delights of Robert Wrene's multr influential The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (http://tinyurlcomr2hnBsyi Coming Lip to date. there's (:lz ssic B Movies like 1909's unsettling gem Carnival of Souls lhttp; tiiiyurlcoiir2bb/fix). the original Night of the Living Dead lhttpzr/trnyur|.corir2eregtir. Jack Nicholson and Boris Karloff in The Terror. pictured. fhttp: ’tinyurlcom, fil)eetir') or even bi/air'e political satire on the Watergate-era White House in The Werewolf of Washington (http:/r’tinyurl.com l24ltcbi. Public domain crnema is a wrde open field, wrth new films added every day; but do yourself a favour and check out Conrad Verdt's barnstormirig performance in touching German melodrama The Man Who Laughs (http://tinyurl.coiir/2epka8). If you want to see where the inspiration came from for the ghoulish appearance of the Joker in the Batman comics and films. the bizarre appearance of hero Gmrrrplaine should leave you wrth a creepy smile on yOur face for days. iEddie Harrison)
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