Here's some goss for you before I rant about what I've watched lately...

Road Kill - stars Paul Walker, Steve Zahn, Leelee Sobieski

Road trips, you gotta love 'em. Psycho's? Yeah okay, can't say they're my cup of tea. Put them together and you're gonna freak me out. Road Kill see's three friends (two of them brothers) cruising to New Jersey from Colarado - fair trip to them. On the way, they decide to pull a prank by pretending to be a woman and inviting a faceless truckie to a hotel room, which of course they weren't in. They were next door waiting for the laughter to begin...no luck. The tennant ends up on the median strip with his jaw missing next to death, and our brothers'-funny are now being stalked by said psycho truckie.

I've gotta say I was impressed. The last movie I watched of this ilk was Breakdown (Kurt Russell) and that put me through my paces; even better was The Hitcher (Rutger Hauer), now that had an edge and although its fairly old now, its the best of the lot. There's something about those big isolated places that puts a shiver down my spine, and this one takes pretty good advantage of that. Adding to the movie is the fact that what we're seeing is all quite plausable, you can imagine this stuff happening without too much trouble. The cast do what's due, but Steve Zahn is interesting with a serious face on. For anyone that's seen Happy Texas or Evil Woman, you know what I mean. If you've seen Out Of Sight then this is a similar role, expect him to be more along those lines. Still, out of the mostly sterile cast, he stands out as not belonging, not sure why, I certainly wouldn't have cast him in the part. Probably.

So the potential for things to go wrong on the open road is fairly great, and this film throws in a few curves you didn't see coming, but also runs off into "what the...?" territory more than once as well. This is three parts teen movie, two parts slasher and predictable to a point, yet it is still quite watchable and an ending leaving you wondering a few things. I really enjoyed it. 3 and a half stars.

Long Time Dead - stars loads of English people we don't know

I've never heard of this, no previews, no hullaballoo of any description, wasn't even on the list of upcoming releases at the local. Well I'll be. As soon as we saw Ouija Board, we were intrigued. It was a smorgasboard on the new release shelf too so this was lucky to hit the counter on top. So what did we get?

Group of friends hit a rave, do drugs, talk shit, end up deciding to pull a seance to see who they might contact. It doesn't exactly go to plan when the spirit world returns the message "ALL DIE". Cor, spewin'! The seance goes bad, did I need to mention that? Moving on and they're being offed one by one, noone knows how, why or who, and not only are they running out time, they're running out of bodies.

I loved this, no question. Sure it followed the now-overdone group of kiddies getting killed off genre of horror that Scream seemed to kick off, but where most of them fail badly (RSVP, Valentine), this one pulls it off quite nicely. Two distinct differences - firstly, its English. No happy drawly Californian accents to get up our noses, doooood. Its so nice to see the poms in action for a change, Americans don't hold a candle to them in the party stakes. Secondly, its fresh, the killer is secretive (but by no means discreet) and this focuses on the people involved. Thirdly, this thing doesn't get bogged down in creating sub-plots or relationships or histories - you get what you're given and you just move with it. And there's no romance, WAHOO! What's the last thing you want to see in a horror flick, oh yeah, a couple just about get stabbed to death by some serial killer whose been chasing them for six hours through the same house, they decide to have a shag behind the couch...WHATEVER! Also appealing is the killings themselves, most of it is implied, there's not this elaborate blood bath that we have to wait five minutes to finish. Its good stuff.

It rolls at a hectic pace so you can't sit back and no-brain this one from one half-closed eye on the modular, I was quite tired when I saw it and really found myself working hard to keep up with what was going on. Also go in with an open mind, you have to be a little bit on the belief side of the supernatural. Hell I'm the biggest skeptic I know and I got sucked in. It has its jumpy moments too, but as I always say (and may stop one day), I'm the only one I know that gets scared in movies these days...you poor strong brave people you! Don't even wait for a preview, just see it. 4 stars.

Dogtown and Z-Boys

Its a documovie of sorts detailing the humble beginnings of skateboarding "something to do when the surf blew out", and then its meteroic rise to world-popularity from the self-professed starters-of-it-all themselves. Its very American, and in saying so its very I'll suck your dick if you suck mine, but still it is quite interesting from a nostalgia point of view. I grew up with a little banana board and although nowhere near 'hardcore', it was hard for me not to go back to those days to remember the hours and hours I spent just skate boarding around my house and streets. And the lost skin, and the broken teeth...ok I'm over it. So is Stu I would imagine ;-)

I'm not sure what else to tell you, its a whole bunch of old footage - which is amazing it survived let alone was taken in the first place - combined with interviews of the people in the footage in the present day. They called themselves the Zephyr Team, and Dogtown was the nickname for the Venice Beach area "the last of the beachside slums". If you're into skating, you'll go nuts with this. If you're partial to it but aren't really that fussed, you might not get anything out of it. I watched it out of curiosity and can't say I was disappointed, some great footage of people surfing through semi submerged pilons. 3 stars.

The Untouchables - stars Kevin Costner, Andy Garcia, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro

This things is a classic no doubt, and on DVD its presented in wide screen which I think gives it a visual oomph it never had. I fondly recall seeing this back when it first came out and I was wowed big time. '87 it was released, can you believe that? So what was my impression 15-odd years later?

Well to be honest very disappointed. What was magic back then really hasn't aged well at all. The lush production is far overshadowed by wooden, overacted performances, and I don't know if its the adaptation to digital, but the sounds was horrible. Out of sync, especially in fights scenes, and the score behind it all isn't even appropriate at times. Its like the guy doing the conversion decided to put the soundtrack from a different movie in to "spice" it up. Piffle! Stacey had never seen it, so how disgusted was I that my "this is a classic Stace you'll love it" comments have all failed again. Three enduring things about the movie do stand up however: Robert De Niro's performance as Capone is faultless, the man can be one bad mofo! The infamous baseball bat scene at the dinner table still makes my stomach churn, and of course the railway station sequence, one of the best ever put on film. I hate to say it, let this one remain a fond memory. 3 stars.

Phew, ok I'm sated now. Hey you, wake up and go home. I'm done.

BH