This is Matt comin’ back at ya with another Must-See-DVD review. The film of choice this time is Lamberto Bava’s Demons and boy is it sweet. Demons, produced by Dario Argento, is my all-time favorite Italian horror movie. This film contains all the necessary elements for a classic 80’s horror movie: ensemble characters, heavy metal, blood by the bucket and breasts (although the lone breast-shot is very unattractive).

A number of people have been invited to a movie premier by a strange man with a metal mask. This zombie-STYLE movie also includes Giallo slasher elements through the film the crowd views. I’m not sure but I assume what is viewed on the screen was made for this movie. A woman puts on a strange mask which scratches her face. Soon after, the woman is running to the washroom where she mutates into a demon. Terror ensues.

The characters are part of what makes this movie classic. Included are lovers (the male and female protagonists), a pimp with his women, a blind man with his niece, a dirty old man who pursues the young niece and a bunch of cocaine-snorting, Billy Idol loving punk teens. Until he becomes a Demon, the pimp is the leader of the pack as he orders people around. This guy is so badass that when someone tells him not to dispense of a dead body over a railing he delivers the line “Aw man, you aint worth shiiiit!”, he’s obviously seen a zombie film or two and knows what to do.

The gore in this film is very cheesy but gratuitous enough that you laugh every time. Another trope of Italian horror films is the gory close-up shot. Anytime someone is sliced open, their eyes are ripped out or their fingernails and teeth pop-out during transformation you can bet that the camera is in nice and tight…..you can almost taste the fake blood and polyurethane. And what Italian horror would be complete without what I like to call a G.E.T. sequence. What is G.E.T. you ask? Well if you’ve seen Lucio Fulci’s famous film Zombie you’ll remember the cringe-inducing scene in which a woman’s eye is pierced by a splinter of wood (complemented by a close-up shot of course); another example of a Gratuitous Eye Trauma sequence (always fun to watch!). In Demons, the victim is the creepy guy who was handing out movie tickets at the beginning of the film and the wood splinter is replaced by a metal rod.

Now I would like to take a moment and describe to you what may be the most bitchin’ scene in cinematic history. If this doesn’t peak your interest in this movie then you cannot call yourself a fan of horror, the 80’s or anything awesome (just kidding). Near the end of the film most of the people have died or become demons. The two lovers are fleeing from a horde when they come across a display featuring a dirt bike and…….wait for it…….a samurai sword! The two hop on the bike a ride around the theater slicing and dicing to the heavy metal track Fast as a Shark by Accept. What more could you ever want? How about a heap of other great songs to make the Demons soundtrack second-to-none. Bands included are Billy Idol, Accept, Motley Crue, Saxon and Scorpions.

Have you seen this movie? Will you see this movie? Tell me what you think……………

Chances are you have probably seen clips from The Story of Ricky either as a viral video or from the Daily Show’s old ‘5 Questions’ segment. The video I’m mentioning is a shot of a huge guy in leather crushing the head of a small man like a *cough* melon. My first exposure to this movie was during pre-viral video days when I was often downloading martial arts videos from Morpheus/Kazaa. After seeing the aforementioned clip I discovered all I needed to know about this movie over at www.badmovies.org. However, I wouldn’t check that site’s review if you are really interested in seeing the film as it reveals many of the surprises you will experience.

The opening sequence ends by setting up the movie saying:
“By 2001 A.D. capitalistic countries have privatized all government organizations. Prisons, like car-parks, have become franchised business…..”
To follow that, Ricky has been sentenced to 10 years in one of these prisons for manslaughter and assault. The jail is controlled by a very powerful warden, who has more ‘power’ than you expect. Next is the assistant warden who has 2 hooks for one of his hands and a glass eye that doubles as a breath-mint container (yes, you read correctly…). The jail is divided into four sections conveniently named the North block, South block etc. etc. Each of these blocks is controlled by a super-tough guy and these men (one of whom is played by a woman) are called the Gang of Four. Yes this movie does have a knack for creative nomenclature.

The plot gets rolling when Ricky defends an old man in a shower room. From then on he fights and endures various tortures until the tremendous climax which bares a significant resemblance to that of Braindead (Dead Alive), complete with a massive polyurethane body-suit and a deluge of fake blood.

There are 2 key features of The Story of Ricky that make it a ‘Must-See-DVD’. The obvious first element is the gore. Imagine a Bruce Lee film in which the blows delivered by the star dismember or cause their targets to explode. Sonny Chiba would be proud. In fact, there is a shot that pays homage to Chiba and his violent Street Fighter movies, however this film goes 10 steps further than any of those. The second element is the complete random timing of the violence. The majority of the bloody shots come without notice, even when Ricky is in the middle of kicking ass. What I mean is that there are certain moments when Ricky is fighting and you can’t help but say ‘Whoa!!! That was fucking crazy!!!’.

The violence in this film is very unrealistic, but to the point that it’s hilarious. Dummies are used a number of times and it is always obvious. Many people are dismembered, have holes punched in them and have parts of their bodies sliced open and quite often they are able to continue fighting afterwards. Any man who can tie the two ends of a severed tendon together and continue fighting must have some real cojones.

As for the story, this film does a pretty decent job of not getting too slow. Movies like this can get boring as soon as the fighting stops but The Story of Ricky has enough bad acting that you’ll want to pay attention to what is being said. The amount of speaking in between fighting is cut pretty short. Some of the slower flashback sequences have fight scenes in them to make sure you don’t lose interest, and random acts of violence against people and animals (the best moment in the film involves a guard dog and a well placed kick) are stuck into speaking scenes.

This film may not be found in the big blue and yellow box stores but it can easily be found online. I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of splatter, martial arts or straight-up cheesy films. I hold this on the same level as Dead Alive, Bad Taste, Return of the Living Dead and the Sleepaway Camp movies.

And I mustn’t forget, for all of you who want the same power as Ricky you must remember one thing, Chi-Gong is best practiced with a crazy, cackling uncle at night in a graveyard. The greater amount of desecration to the headstones, the better you will be!

Feel free to enjoy the famous ‘head-crushing’ video clip. Warning: The following footage contains graphic depictions of justice being served.

Greetings everyone! My name is Matt and I have been writing for The 80’s Blog, but now I will be spending my late nights pumping out articles for Filmjunk. ‘Must See DVD’ is going to be a recurring article here; this first one has already been posted on The 80s Blog (lazy I know, but the movie is worth ‘re-mentioning’). Basically, I have been hunting down great movies that are relatively unknown. I use the term ‘great’ loosely as the reason for their unpopularity is due to their cheesiness, poor scripts, poor acting and poor quality. I assure you that they are cheesy, corny and campy enough to be good.

I purchased a copy of Gymkata after reading a review by Roger Ebert in his book “I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie”. The tagline, “The skill of gymnastics, the kill of karate”, had me excited. This disc proved to be worth its weight in gold. Not just any gold, I’m talking about hard-earned, 1st place in world championship gymnastics gold!

There’s not much to the plot. The main character Jonathan Cabot (played by a champion gymnast named Kurt Thomas) has to get into a village for the government. The problem, no one has gotten into the city for 900 years or something because they have to go through the ‘game’. What is the ‘game’? Well, Jonathan has to fight a whole bunch of people in order to win. I won’t spoil the ending…

What makes this film so great are the fight scenes. As someone who has been a martial artist for 11 years and was a member of the high school gymnastics team, I found them utterly ridiculous. First, Jonathan does not really ‘fight’ anyone. He makes use of his gymnastics and flops/crashes into people. Imagine doing cartwheels and flips into crazy ninjas with all types of weapons. The most excellent feature of any given fight scene is the random placement of some gymnastic apparatus. For example, Jonathan is running through some alleys from the ninjas and out of nowhere a pummel-horse appears and he makes quick work of his assailants. A high-bar used in a different scene is a little more believable, in its placement that is. Jonathan does some rotations before giving a nice boot to his obviously expectant victim.

Jackie Chan has been most successful popularizing his style of martial arts, using his surroundings to fight more efficiently. Recently Tony Jaa has brought Muay Thai into the spotlight. It’s too bad Kurt Thomas couldn’t do the same with gymnastics. His martial art skills aren’t the only thing he lacks, Thomas’ acting was so bad he was nominated for a Razzie in 1986.

I don’t want these posts to become too Youtube, or video-heavy. However I can’t resist posting the trailer for this movie. I know it will persuade you to see Gymkata. “The combustion becomes an explosion!”