Two Fives

I've had an incredibly good movie viewing weekend....
Yes, friends -- I actually stumbled across two films in a row that I would rate as perfect fives. That is, movies so good that I would personally be proud of the result if I'd made them myself. I heartily recommend both of these babies.


So, let's get started.

Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0163988/



Netflix description:
Ambulance driver Frank Pierce (Nicolas Cage) -- on the verge of a nervous breakdown -- stumbles through three sleepless nights on the job accompanied by a callous crew (John Goodman, Ving Rhames and Tom Sizemore). As Frank navigates through the dead and dying, he finds humanity in an unlikely friendship with a heart-attack victim's ex-junkie daughter (Patricia Arquette). The film, helmed by Martin Scorsese, is based on Joe Connelly's memoir.



Bringing Out the Dead is a Scorsese film about a jaded paramedic. It stars Nicholas Cage as our hero, Frank Pierce. It is awesome.

(I mean, seriously.)

I can't believe I never heard of this one before last week. My wife had an old VHS copy sitting around, and I was like, "Well, OK. Let's watch it." I'm glad we did.

Bringing Out the Dead actually has little in the way of traditional PLOT, really. Basically, it's just Nicholas Cage (er, Frank) driving around New York city in the middle of the night in a state of complete burnout. See, Frank's job is incredibly high stress -- being an ambulance guy in the Big Crapple ain't an easy gig, man. An EMT in such a location deals with a nonstop barrage of violence, deprivation, and death. It kills a man's soul.

An average evening for Frank might involve dozens of encounters with junkies, prostitutes, and mangled accident victims. When we meet him, he's already on the edge, having gone through an unlucky spell in which he hasn't been able to save a life in months. Frank wonders if he's lost the magic touch, and visions of one young girl that he failed to save, in particular, keep haunting him. His partners -- there are three of them -- all seem to deal with the natural stress of being an EMT in their own ways, but Frank is kind of lost. He's got a dead, tired look in his eyes; that gaze of desperation that Nicholas Cage can pull off better than anyone else. You know what I'm talking about -- the sad look he has in Leaving Las Vegas. Yeah, that same one.

And I must say that Cage does rock the house in this film. He's in top form here, reminding me why I ever admired him in the first place. Considering Cage's string of downright crappy movies for the past five years or so, I watched Bringing Out the Dead and wondered what the heck has happened to him. How a man this cool could fail to have performed in a good motion picture since 2005 (I count The Weatherman as his last one) is beyond me.

(Watch this hilarious video now.)

Anyway, in Bringing Out the Dead, we follow Frank through three nights on the job. He gets crazier and crazier as they progress, and so do his partners. Eventually, Frank makes friends with a drug addict played by Patricia Arquette. Will they bring each other stability and redemption?

Martin Scorsese's direction here is slick and fast. We've got brilliant washed out colors and jump cuts up the wazoo, which normally I don't like, but seem appropriate this time around. Bringing Out the Dead also has a cool, 60s-psychedelic type soundtrack that only old Marty would have brought to the table. He really shows how skilled he is in keeping this film together; had a less talented director been at the helm, it probably would ended up being a giant mess.

Bringing Out the Dead is a depressing, but undeniably compelling, psychological study of a guy who's simply taken too much. We're sucked into poor Frank's insane world, and leave a little wiser (this film is based off a novel by Joe Connelly, himself a former paramedic in New York City). The world is full of broken, overworked, desperate people...and this is an excellent story about one of them.

5 out of 5.

AND....

The Hills Run Red (2009)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0907676/


Netflix description:
When they hear there's a complete print of their favorite slasher movie hidden in their hometown's backwoods, a group of horror movie buffs heads out in search of the celluloid treasure. Once arriving at their destination, they discover that the carnage captured in the movie was completely real, and worse yet, the filmmakers are looking to spill more blood before they're ready to call "cut." Sophie Monk and William Sadler star.


Wow, did this horror flick blow my mind. The Hills Run Red somehow does EVERYTHING right.

It's about a student filmmaker who becomes obsessed with tracking down a legendary slasher flick from the early 80s that has all-but completely disappeared. See, this film -- called The Hills Run Red -- was reportedly so gruesome that it was pulled from theaters everywhere, and all copies destroyed. Now, only an old, grainy trailer from the movie remains, and our hero, Tyler, gets the idea that he might be able to find the full feature.

Tyler gets a lead in the form of the daughter of the original film's director. Her name is Alexa, and she's a junkie stripper. Yay!


Alexa agrees to take Tyler and his pals deep into the wilds of some rural area to track down her dad and a copy of The Hills Run Red. Needless to say, things don't go so well.

Nope -- Tyler and friends soon realize that Alexa's dad -- Wilson Concannon -- is more than just a film visionary. He's a true blue, murderous psycho. The Hills Run Red wasn't just a slasher flick; it was REAL, man!

Our heroes are then taunted, tormented, and tortured for the rest of their nature hike by Concannon and his henchman, a brainwashed killer named Babyface. Babyface is mean; he's bad; he's got a doll's head for a mask. He'll do anything Concannon orders. CAN Tyler and his friends escape these woods alive? HOW many people has Concannon murdered for his productions?? WILL we actually get to see the original version of his film???


As noted, The Hills Run Red somehow does everything that I think a good horror film should. The plot twists are far less predictable than most other pictures of the genre; the characters are well-developed; the violence doesn't really start until the third act; when it does, it's REAL nasty; and there's a ton of respectable nudity. I loved this movie!

And it's actually SCARY, something I can't say for many films at all. Towards the midway point, I found myself anxiously leaning forward, not quite knowing what to expect from Babyface and Concannon. The usual horror cliches were just skewed in The Hills Run Red. It's difficult to crack.

The stomach-churning gorefest that is this film's third act is beautifully orchestrated. I actually flinched a few times as Alexa laid into Tyler's best friend, What's His Name, with various rusty sharp objects. Yes, I may be a troll for finding enjoyment in such violence, but this is GOOD violence; violence with a motive. And YOU ought to enjoy it, too!

All horror fans should check out The Hills Run Red. What starts off seeming like a typical modern teen cash-in flick ends up being remarkably fresh, creative, and creepy. It's good, bloody fun. Give it a chance.

5 out of 5.

So, there you have it -- two fine films that I advise everyone to check out. Happy viewing!

b.