Film Review: LIFEFORCE (1985, Tobe Hooper)

Stars: 3 of 5.
Running Time: 116 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: Steve Railsback (ESCAPE 2000, SAVE ME), Patrick Stewart (DUNE, X-MEN, STAR TREK), Peter Firth (THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, TESS), Frank Finlay (THE PIANIST, THE WILD GEESE), Mathilda May (A GIRL CUT IN TWO, THE JACKAL), Aubrey Morris (Deltoid in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE), possible narration by John Larroquette (uncredited and unconfirmed)? Music by Henry Mancini (THE PINK PANTHER, CHARADE). Cinematography by Alan Hume (RETURN OF THE JEDI, RUNAWAY TRAIN).
Tag-line: "In outer space they unleashed a force more evil than the world had ever imagined!..." Best one-liner: Lotta good ones. Maybe "The web of destiny carries your blood and soul back to the genesis of my lifeform." or perhaps "Well, I'm fascinated by death itself. What happens as we die, when we die. What happens after we die."

LIFEFORCE, Tobe Hooper's first of three collaborations with Golan & Globus' Cannon Films (the others being TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 and INVADERS FROM MARS), definitely seems as if it's the end-result of a ten-way tug of war that ended with maybe a 6-hour movie being cut down to 2.

I feel like Tobe wanted to both capitalize on POLTERGEIST and step out from behind Spielberg's shadow, creating his own work of intense visual spectacle and whirling, ghostly sci-fi FX.

I feel like Dan O'Bannon (and co-writer Don Jakoby) wanted to create an epic creature-feature in the mold of ALIEN, but with a sprinkling of RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (which had very similar corpse FX, and which O'Bannon released the same year).


Finally, I think producers Golan & Globus wanted a movie that'd rake in the big bucks AND feature a female space vampire who was constantly naked, and maybe remind people of SUPERMAN II in a roundabout sorta way.


In conclusion, it ended up as a mess that basically disappointed everyone. But it's certainly a watchable mess, and for that, I shall applaud it. There's a lot going on here: Our hero is Steve Railsback.

Kinda the poor man's Tommy Lee Jones, Railsback is one of those actors (like Christopher George), who makes such bizarre choices, that I honestly can't tell if he's brilliant or terrible. There is no middle ground: he's one of those two things. I just can't tell which. I'm leaning toward brilliant. He definitely brings a distinctive energy to the clichéd "waking up screaming" scene.

YAHHHHHHHHHHHH

And he dives into line readings like "LET ME GO! LET ME GO! LET ME GO! LET ME GO!" with genuine élan. At one point he emotes: "Despite appearances, THIS WOMAN IS A MASOCHIST!"

Actually, I think Railsback may be right.

and begins slapping her. Yup.

And I appreciate the sincerity with which the line ""We're deploying the specimen bag" is uttered, when we know he knows that the 'high-tech specimen bag' is just a cheap net,

and he knows that we know that, but he runs it up the flagpole anyway. Good show.

The soundtrack, by Henry Mancini, is a real head-scratcher. It sounds like he thought he was composing for a movie about Medieval jousting, not space vampires. The production design is very James Bond-ian. In fact, frequently it feels more like a 60's spy thriller than an 80's Cannon sci-fi. The editing is choppy and disjointed. It doesn't help that we have what feels like minutes of unwanted narration near the beginning (which suddenly disappears for the rest of the film's duration). The FX look great for a Cannon film. Blood blasts out of orifices and congeals into a sanguinary Jell-O woman who collapses on the floor with a splat.



A Go-Go boy-lookin' male vampire intones with a deep voice: "It'll be much less terrifying if you just come to me."

Giant bats, vampire zombies, matte paintings, umbrella'd spaceships-


it’s probably Cannon’s most ambitious effort. And for that, it gets three stars.

-Sean Gill

Film Review: A GIRL CUT IN TWO (2008, Claude Chabrol)

Stars: 5 of 5.

Running Time: 115 minutes.

Notable Cast or Crew: Benoit Magimel (of Chabrol's THE BRIDESMAID and THE FLOWER OF EVIL and Haneke's THE PIANO TEACHER), François Berleand (everything from CAMILLE CLAUDEL to Breillat's ROMANCE to THE TRANSPORTER 2) , Ludivine Sagnier (of Ozon's SWIMMING POOL), Mathilda May (from THE JACKAL...hah), Caroline Sihol, Thomas Chabrol.

Tag-line: "One man's love is another man's lust."

Awards: Golden Arena at the Pula Film Festival, Bastone Bianca Award at the Venice Film Festival.

Chabrol is a subtle filmmaker. He's long lived in the shadow of Hitchcock (try and find an article, review, or appreciation that does not use the tired phrase "the French Hitchcock"), but his films are much more subtle, vague, and 'RULES OF THE GAME meets Agatha Christie,' than Hitchcock, which sometimes works in his favor, and sometimes against. I don't understand the preponderance of negative reviews. Obviously, this is not an ideal entry point into Chabrol's work (I would suggest LES BONNES FEMMES, MASQUES, or LA CEREMONIE for starters), but A GIRL CUT IN TWO is a very well-constructed film. Based on the Nesbit/Thaw/White love triangle from turn of the century America, Chabrol constructs a film with multi-layered characters (most of them total self-serving dicks), superb acting,

(particularly Chabrol favorite Benoit Magimel as the simpering, unstable dandy), hidden motivations, and the unsettling creepiness of what goes on behind the closed doors of the rich and lecherous. Chabrol does require you to meet him halfway- a crucial event might be faded out on, then referenced in innuendo or half-divulged remarks, and much of the enjoyment comes from piecing together the mysterious motivations, almost as if you are a member of the social circle figuring things out from half-heard conversations or hearsay. By now, you should know if this is the sort of film you'd like or not. It's not BASIC INSTINCT or SLIVER, no matter what the poster may insinuate. But consider Chabrol a fine red wine compared to the mixed fruit-flavored special brew St. Ides malt liquor that Hollywood generally serves up as a romantic psychological thriller.

Sometimes you need that special brew, and it gets the job done. But, ultimately, you're gonna get a lot more out of the red wine. I hope.

-Sean Gill