Showing posts with label violence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label violence. Show all posts
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Rental Review: Ted Bundy
By Ryn Gargulinski
Even 18 years after being electrocuted, Ted Bundy is still a fascination. This flick seethes with his cunning, his violence, his charm. It also oozes with gore depicting his murder spree that may have taken the lives of some 150 women.
Bundy is the reason the term “serial killer” was first coined.
The really cool 1970s clothes and culture just add to the intrigue of the film, as do the loving girlfriend who is blind to his aberration and his ability to hoist a body wrapped in a sheet down the street past four passers-by and a dog.
Bundy, who was charming enough to even have true crime master Ann Rule wondering if he were really a killer, continues to charm in his horrific way, mainly because he had a grand façade of appearing like a harmless handsome man.
That is, until you got into a car with him.
Fast Bundy facts:
*More than 200 women per day wrote him letters in prison to say they were in love with him.
*He drove a yellow Volkswagen bug.
*My friend Mark served him dinner in 1977 when he worked at a Seattle restaurant. He said FBI agents were in the door with questions right after Bundy left.
*When people are about to be electrocuted, prison officials stuff cotton up their butt so they don’t soil themselves and the electric chair.
Highlight: The one who got away.
Lowlight: The blinded by love girlfriend.
Rating (1-10): 2,200 or the number of volts in an effective electric chair
Even 18 years after being electrocuted, Ted Bundy is still a fascination. This flick seethes with his cunning, his violence, his charm. It also oozes with gore depicting his murder spree that may have taken the lives of some 150 women.
Bundy is the reason the term “serial killer” was first coined.
The really cool 1970s clothes and culture just add to the intrigue of the film, as do the loving girlfriend who is blind to his aberration and his ability to hoist a body wrapped in a sheet down the street past four passers-by and a dog.
Bundy, who was charming enough to even have true crime master Ann Rule wondering if he were really a killer, continues to charm in his horrific way, mainly because he had a grand façade of appearing like a harmless handsome man.
That is, until you got into a car with him.
Fast Bundy facts:
*More than 200 women per day wrote him letters in prison to say they were in love with him.
*He drove a yellow Volkswagen bug.
*My friend Mark served him dinner in 1977 when he worked at a Seattle restaurant. He said FBI agents were in the door with questions right after Bundy left.
*When people are about to be electrocuted, prison officials stuff cotton up their butt so they don’t soil themselves and the electric chair.
Highlight: The one who got away.
Lowlight: The blinded by love girlfriend.
Rating (1-10): 2,200 or the number of volts in an effective electric chair
Monday, May 14, 2007
Rental Review: Pulp Fiction
By Ryn Gargulinski
Fast-paced, kooky, disgusting and violent, this is a wonderful flick.
The brilliant mélange of interconnected tales include a drug lord, a heroin overdose, a boxer turned murderer and other jovial moments such as an armed robbery and a guy who gets his face blown off in the back of a car.
Wheee.
It’s especially interesting to see John Travolta in a dance scene and compare it to the one he filmed 100 years ago as Danny Zuko in Grease.
Highlight: The scene where they clean up the guys's face blown off in the back of the car.
Lowlight: We are left wanting more. But not enough to merit a Part 2 that always ruins everything, like Grease 2 did.
Rating (1-10): 941
This movie was recommended by Val and everyone standing around him Friday night.
Fast-paced, kooky, disgusting and violent, this is a wonderful flick.
The brilliant mélange of interconnected tales include a drug lord, a heroin overdose, a boxer turned murderer and other jovial moments such as an armed robbery and a guy who gets his face blown off in the back of a car.
Wheee.
It’s especially interesting to see John Travolta in a dance scene and compare it to the one he filmed 100 years ago as Danny Zuko in Grease.
Highlight: The scene where they clean up the guys's face blown off in the back of the car.
Lowlight: We are left wanting more. But not enough to merit a Part 2 that always ruins everything, like Grease 2 did.
Rating (1-10): 941
This movie was recommended by Val and everyone standing around him Friday night.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Rental Review: Bullet
By Ryn Gargulinski
Excellent depiction of Coney Island, bloody eyeballs, a NYC graffiti artist and the stereotypical Jewish family with a couple of sons gone bad but the characters are annoying as hell.
We get Mickey Rourke with a stupid skull cap who just got out of prison with a massive heroin habit, his older brother who went schizo and thinks every day is Vietnam, a spineless yet talented younger sibling who you feel like slapping silly, an Italian stallion type who denies he is bordering on homosexuality and finds no qualms about driving around in a pink car and a one-eyed drug king who cruises town in his limo and wants to blow everyone away.
Yes, it’s a very fine and dandy mix of folks with a lot of potential but there’s one problem. We don’t like any of them.
Highlight: The bowels of New York backdrop.
Lowlight: The bowels of humanity characters.
Rating (1-10): 3.57
This movie was recommended by Nathan.
Excellent depiction of Coney Island, bloody eyeballs, a NYC graffiti artist and the stereotypical Jewish family with a couple of sons gone bad but the characters are annoying as hell.
We get Mickey Rourke with a stupid skull cap who just got out of prison with a massive heroin habit, his older brother who went schizo and thinks every day is Vietnam, a spineless yet talented younger sibling who you feel like slapping silly, an Italian stallion type who denies he is bordering on homosexuality and finds no qualms about driving around in a pink car and a one-eyed drug king who cruises town in his limo and wants to blow everyone away.
Yes, it’s a very fine and dandy mix of folks with a lot of potential but there’s one problem. We don’t like any of them.
Highlight: The bowels of New York backdrop.
Lowlight: The bowels of humanity characters.
Rating (1-10): 3.57
This movie was recommended by Nathan.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Rental Review: Shawshank Redemption
By Ryn Gargulinski
Now I know what all the fuss is about. This movie successfully depicts the harrowing fate of a clean cut dude, who may even be innocent, stuck in the horrific hole of a 1940s prison.
We get his daily abuse, his constant run ins with the “pretty” boys and his firm insistence that he’s innocent. Heck, we even start to believe him, but that would make his fate waaaay too horrific.
We also see what happens to men who cry about their fate. Let’s just say they don’t cry again. Ever.
But this movie is more than just inner prison violence, it’s a full-fledged plot, something many flicks of the day are often lacking.
Highlight: The friendship forged between two convicts.
Lowlight: Damn "pretty boys."
Rating (1-10): 923
This movie was recommended by Nathan.
Now I know what all the fuss is about. This movie successfully depicts the harrowing fate of a clean cut dude, who may even be innocent, stuck in the horrific hole of a 1940s prison.
We get his daily abuse, his constant run ins with the “pretty” boys and his firm insistence that he’s innocent. Heck, we even start to believe him, but that would make his fate waaaay too horrific.
We also see what happens to men who cry about their fate. Let’s just say they don’t cry again. Ever.
But this movie is more than just inner prison violence, it’s a full-fledged plot, something many flicks of the day are often lacking.
Highlight: The friendship forged between two convicts.
Lowlight: Damn "pretty boys."
Rating (1-10): 923
This movie was recommended by Nathan.
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