www.list.co.uk/film
DOCUMENTARY JESUS CAMP (PG) 107min
(ICA DVD retail) 0..
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's fly-on-the-wall documentary might easily be classified as a kind of real life horror film. In it we follow one Pastor Becky as she gears up to. and runs a summer camp for born again Christian children and their families. The kids concerned are hyped up to appalling bouts of hysteria by talk of Jesus. then politically programmed by the Christian fundamentalist right to act as foot soldiers in the campaign to elect an anti-women's choice Supreme Court judge.
What is truly frightening about this film is the way in which everything in these children's lives is swallowed up by an all encompassing system. which controls every aspect of their existence from visits to a Christian shopping centre to the kind of music they select. There are inadvertently comic moments. such as when the pastor has them pay homage to a life-sized cardboard cut-out of George W Bush. but on the whole. this rather detached observation of a terrifying version of every day life is just plain disturbing. See it. and hope it doesn‘t happen here. Minimal extras. (Steve Cramer)
DOCUMENTARY BLACK, WHITE + GRAY
(1 5) 69min (Revolver DVD) .0.
James Crump's documentary revisits the contentious work, life and times of seminal 80s photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The artist‘s legacy is re- examined through a close study of the life of his partner and patron,
the curator and collector. Sam Wagstaff. By displaying a fairly staid fascination with Wagstaff's ‘transformation‘ from visionary curator to Mapplethorpe's lover, and by pronouncing the supposedly shocking revelation that a man in the late 703 could both attend significant art conventions and late- night meatpacking district parties. Black, White + Grey does not cause as much rupture as the filmmaker may have intended.
'- .
“Fasciiatiigl'
WHITE +
Meditations on the art of photography and the roles of the art collector and curator only just manage to save this film from a lurid biographical pitfall. The adorable Patti Smith talks warmly of her friendship with Sam and Robert. but most interestingly, about Wagstaff's photography collection. Hailed as the first collector to place value on the anonymous snapshot. Wagstaff's obsessive collecting is presented as an art. Cramp places a subtle emphasis on the distinctions between one who chooses to make and become art. and one who chooses to shuffle it. creating relevancies, nuances and juxtapositions. but remaining always masked. A considered move. which brings poignancy and interest to this otherwise sensationalist documentary. Minimal extras. (Rosalie Doubal)
HORROR BOTCHED
(15) 90min (Optimum DVD) 0.0
An inept jewel thief (Stephen Dorff) is given one last chance by Russian Mafiosa with a heist from an apartment block. Our robber and his Russian cohorts inevitably screw up. and are the pursued. along
with an eccentric group of hostages. through a sealed off floor of the building by sword wielding. ballet dancing descendants of Ivan the Terrible.
Chaotically. if modishly. structured. Botched is a clever and funny gorefest with a cartoon feel created by some clever photography. There are some good one-liners on the way to a conclusion that becomes outright farce. Some good support acting from Sean Pertwee adds to the grisly comic energy of the whole shebang. Some interesting extras featuring interviews with the director and producer make this international co- production a worthy and offbeat purchase. (Steve Cramer)
COMEDY NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CATTLE CALL (18) 83min (Momentum DVD) 0.
l3"
3 -
3.44%;
It’s a shame that National Lampoon, long associated with tasteless but somehow crudely endearing comedy. should have lent its name to this effort by writer/director Martin Guigui (Swing, Changing Hearts).
In it. we meet three young males who hatch a plot to ensnare women by posing as independent filmmakers seeking to audition young talent. An hour and a half of fit and dick
John Carpenter’s The Fog
We start this horror round-up with a trio of box sets. The John Carpenter Collection (Optimum) um captures all the films that made Carpenter a legend, including bona fide classics (Halloween, The Thing, Assault on Precinct 73, They Live). some very respectable works (The Fog, Escape From New York) and one clunker (Prince of Darkness). Meanwhile. the king of churning ‘em out cheap and quick is celebrated in The Roger Corman Collection. (Optimum) coo While not all horror (it includes two westerns and biker movie The Wild Ange/s) the box set contains three Edgar Allan Poe adaptations Masque of the Red Death, Premature Burial and The Haunted Palace (credited as Poe but actually based on a HP Lovecraft tale). Finally, there’s funky blaxploitation
with Blacula (Optimum) on
(which features alongside the sequel
Scream BIacu/a Scream). Think Hammer Horror meets Shaft. Shameless DVD offers yet more beyond-cult offerings with Who Saw l-ler Die? (Shameless) oooo , starring a post-Bond George Lazenby in a taut giallo from 1972. While there are similarities between the two films, this Venice-set thriller pre-dates Don't Look Now and features a fabulously demonic score by Ennio Morricone. There's gonzo fun to be had in 80s horror comedy Killer Klowns
From Outer Space (Optimum) ooo
(including a whacked-out
theme by The Dickies). Elsewhere. the latest George Romero Dead
movie to get a ‘remake’ is Day of the Dead (Optimum) eoo
, which
has only a passing resemblance (ie there are zombies) and a couple of vague nods to the 1985 original. While the film has headed direct to DVD it’s competently directed by old hand Steve Miner (House, Lake Placid
and Halloween: H20). Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! (Revolver) 0
runs with the
tagline ‘strippers vs zombies’ which pretty much sums it up (although it's nowhere near as exciting as you're probably imagining). Vampire Diary
(Bad Cat) 0
displays a couple of nice ideas — all shot on purposely
grainy, shaky video diaries - but is painfully dull. Shark In Venice despite the deranged genius of the concept. (basically Jaws in Venice) is sub-TV movie standard at best. But
(Warner Home Video) o
there’s light at the end of the tunnel: The Chair (DNC) ooo
proves
that low-budget horror can be atmospheric on a micro budget.
(Henry Northmore)
jokes later and you‘ll be another step closer to the grave with not much to show for it.
There are a couple of compensations in the
shapes of cameos
Jonathan Winters as a sarcastic and twisted Hollywood Studio tour
' guide and Paul
Mazursky as the troubled judge who
presides over the boys'
comeuppance. but the flabby narration and moral agenda uncertainties as to the position on the boys. seeming to both endorse and. as an afterthought. condemn
their dehumanising attitude to women. do the film no favours. Mildly likeable performances from the leads. Thomas Ian Nicholas and Jenny Mollen just aren‘t enough to make this float. Minimal extras. (Steve Cramer)
4—18 Set) 2008 THE LIST 61