Saturday, December 31, 2011

TERROR TRAIN (1980) - When Jaimie Lee Curtis boards a train on New Year's Eve with drunk college students wearing masks, what could go wrong?



Some frat boys, always looking to assist others, alert a nerd that there is some cooze stashed away in their frat house. He navigates his way through this haven of beer and indiscriminate fondling and averted academics, lit only by flashing Christmas lights. Friskily approaching his present like a kitten scurrying up to a bow-wrapped dimebag of cat nip on Christmas morning, he hears the sultry tones of Jaimie Lee Curtis and gets in bed, no doubt thanking his lucky stars that Mr. Fatty Claus has finally come through. However, Jaimie is actually doing some ventriloquist act, and the dummy is actually an old dead lady. I guess the nerd is not quite up for that level of kink, so he spins around while covered in a bed sheet, his girly yelping slowing down to a monstrous crawl. Stuff like this occasionally happens when you put your faith in other human beings.

It is now three years later, and all of the students are throwing a New Year's Eve costume party on a moving train. Conductor extraordinaire Ben Johnson complains that the train is not outfitted with a radio, swatting down any future plot holes. The drunken schmucks, save for a sober David Copperfield, head on to the train, chuckling at one of their own getting stabbed with a sword. It’s a costume party, so his costume must’ve been that of the dude that just got impaled by a giant fucking sword. The killer then puts on a Groucho mask and smashes a fake lizard’s mug into a mirror. As far as Marx Brothers references go, I reckon this one is amongst the most obtuse.



Meanwhile, Copperfield does the cigarette in a quarter trick like the dime store magician he truly is. Even Ben Johnson has caught that magic fever, and shows Hart Bochner some shitty sleight of hand. David’s real magic show finally begins, supplemented with some magical disco funk. He makes cards disappear like nobody’s business, and then fucks around with a couple of metal hula hoops. Vanity shows up as some sort of harem girl covered in blue sequins, running off to make out with Hart. Ben finds the dead lizard boy and alerts his co-pilot. “I never saw nobody as dead as that”, he proclaims, flaunting his use of the double negative. However, he reports it as an accident. I guess he thinks the lizard boy got drunk and fell into a mirror and died. Kids these days. Well, the crafty killer puts on the lizard costume and bumps into Ben, so naturally this quells his concern. To celebrate his new found lease on life, he gets down with the token slut (somehow not Vanity), eventually killing her off screen.



(THINGS GET SPOILERY FROM HERE ON OUT)

Meanwhile, Copperfield and Vanity hook up for some further “wizardry”. She makes him disappear (unfortunately not permanently), and he turns into his hot female assistant in the red sequin dress. While this is going on, one guy presumably falls asleep from boredom...oh no, he’s dead. Hart notices the corpse, whimpering like a little girl at the prospect of losing his drinking buddy. A soft rock band kicks Copperfield off stage and gets the teens slow dancing, but Ben slams on the breaks, causing the teens to collapse on the dance floor. Ben and his buddy finally get the teens off the train and make them take off their masks. Jamie mentions to Hart that the nerd went crazy and killed somebody when he was institutionalized. They head back onto the train, and Hart gets his throat slit off screen after some solid cat and mouseisms. Jamie somehow figures out that Copperfield is the killer and alerts Ben. They look for David, and bodies and heads start falling out of overhead compartments and what not. The lead actor from Skullduggery, the wimp who was manipulated by an invisible dungeon master into committing murder, finally grows a pair, calling Ben Johnson an asshole and stating that he’s the one that’s gonna take out the killer. Ben hands him an axe, but he wusses out. I take back that comment about him not being a pussy.



It’s Jaimie Lee, of course, that ends up having to take care of beeswax, managing to become smothered in blood during the prolonged showdown (she makes it work). The killer finally explains that he is, in fact, the hot magician assistant with the red dress, and is most definitely not a chick. Uh oh. I hope I’m not gay. Anyway, he further reveals that he is the nerd from the beginning, who somehow waited in the weeds until getting a job as David Copperfield’s female assistant. You do what you have to do I guess. Regardless, Ben smacks him with a shovel, and he falls off the train. Unfortunately for him, the train is rolling over some elevated tracks, and he falls to his wet, icy grave below. In the end, whether it’s frat houses or frat trains, nerds should learn to stay amongst their own, and not try and branch out to other stratas of society (women, for example).


Sunday, December 25, 2011

ELVES (1989) - When there is no more room in hell, the elves will walk the earth* *actual dialogue



When three very 80’s chicks get together to hold an illicit ceremony in the deep dark woods, you except them to pray to Satan for a Porsche (or three), maybe sacrificing some Barbie dolls covered in their own blood (Satan had lower standards in the 80’s). However, these girls are the “Sisters of Anti-Christmas”, hoping to eradicate Christmas as a corporate media event (or whatever). In order to do so, they worship the “Virgin of Anti-Christmas”, which is a drawing of a chick with big “art-deco” boobs (they have a little pattern drawn on them) that looks like it was drawn by a high school speed metal freak. Anyway, how much pull do they think this “Virgin of Anti-Christmas” has? Extracting corporatism from Christmas would akin to extracting evil from the entire human race. Even if she were to just kill Santa Claus, some other fat jolly asshole would just take his place and the holiday would continue as normal. Not only that, but what are the chances that a big haired 80’s honey who is perpetually showing off her giant painted rack is actually a virgin? I smell shenanigans.



Anyway, lead girl Kirsten’s (both in terms of the sisterhood and the movie) home life is truly not righteous. Her mom is a “mom from hell”, to paraphrase Richard Lewis, and she also lives with her creepy wheelchair bound grandpa. Her only friend in the world is her cat Agamemnon, but her mom soon drowns her cat in the toilet, quickly landing her in the “cunt-y dearest” hall of fame. Her little brother is an obnoxious brat who peeks at her in the shower and yells out “you got big fucking tits and I’m gonna tell everybody I saw ‘em!”. Look, guys, we’ve all peeked at our sisters as they were showering or getting dressed. The way to do it is to be DISCRETE about it…like a gentleman. Wait, you’ve never tried to see your sister naked? Well, of course I’m kidding in order to make a point. Obviously. Anyway, mom and grandpa catch wind of Kirsten using grandpa’s magic books (including the nudie pic) to prey for anti-Christmas, and mom gets rid of Kirsten’s art school savings account as punishment. Kirsten remarks “that is so totally outrageous!”, and truly it is. Truly, truly outrageous.



Oh yeah, there’s one more thing. A Nazi elf is trying to rape Kirsten so she can birth the anti-Christ. Now, we’ve all had a disappointing Christmas season or two, where we didn’t get that Thundercats jumpsuit we wanted, or we got a flat tire driving to Uncle Shecky’s holiday barbecue. However, poor Kristen’s string of bad luck brings holiday disappointment to a whole other level. If that wasn’t bad enough, her two best friends are murdered (collateral damage because of this whole elf Nazi thing) during a sleep over at the department store where Kirsten works. Her boss fires her as a result, and Kirsten frustratingly adds “I’m sorry my friends bled all over your fucking store!”. No wonder she’s so “anti-Christmas”. Wait a second…”anti-Christ”…”anti-Christmas”…there’s a connection right? Holy shit. That’s pretty deep.



Now, I know what you’re thinking folks…haven’t the Nazis done enough damage? Now they’re enlisting elves into their sick plans? And creating the anti-Christ to boot? Luckily, Grizzly Adams (oops, I mean Dan Haggerty) is on the fucking case. Dan gets a job as Santa Claus at the department store after the original Santa is castrated by the elf (there’s subtext in there but I’m too loaded on egg nog to pick up on it). He witnesses the elf first hand and decides to help Kirsten and see what all of this “Nazi elf rape” fuss is about. He visits several experts on the topic of Nazi elf rape so they can rattle off breathless exposition in order to make everything logical and crystal clear to the audience (or not). In one pretty hilarious scene, Dan has to interrupt an expert while he’s getting ready to enjoy Christmas dinner with his family, and the expert rattles off all of the Nazi elf rape plot points while his two adorable little daughters stare at their father quixotically (basically a cutie pie version of the audience). I won’t give everything away, but the movie builds to some crazy, V.C. Andrews-esque family gothic plot twists, if V.C. Andrews was a glue-huffing goofball Slayer fan.



While this sounds like broad camp, everything is grounded, in a sense, by the somber performances of the two leads (well, somber considering the script) and the adult contemporary score played on a dimestore keytar (which slowly becomes ironic as the movie progresses). Elves doesn’t make it clear that it is a comedy, and it’s actually funny as a result. The humor comes from the oddball deviations from the standard holiday monster movie, like the “gift ideas for mom” shotgun display in the background of a shot. There’s also the odd twists of dialogue, whether an incongruous F-bomb, or Dan asking “what happened to the beautiful youth of today?” when he finds out Kirsten is against Christmas, or Kirsten’s brother describing the elf as a “fucking little ninja troll” (he’s a TMNT fan, so I guess that is his point of reference). It’s a bit like if Santa was running down the street from a mall cop after he was caught sticking his hand down some kid’s pants. Santa accidentally knocks over John Waters, who hits his head on the curb and damages his brain. Waters then decides to spite Santa and his stupid holiday by making a Gremlins rip-off with no money. That’s Elves, in nutshell. Got that? So, it’s probably too late this year, but I suggest that the next time you are sitting in front of a TV “enjoying” a big ass ham (or Chinese food for our Jewish friends) with the family during Christmas, pop this fucker into the VCR and reap the rewards of Christmas anti-cheer. Remember, if you want to counteract the fake corporate cheer of Christmas, you can’t just worship some big titty goddess and hope for change. If you want to change the word, you have to act yourself, and not just sit around hoping some bullshit magic takes care of everything.




P.S. Merry X-mas! Really.