Movie Review: Ken Park

Ken Park
Directed by Larry Clark
96 min.



What Am I Doing With This Movie

That's a good question. I don't really care for Larry Clark or Harmony Korine's work. I haven't seen all of their films, but I was severely disappointed with Kids, Bully, and Gummo. I'd sworn off seeing anything else by them, but the controversy surrounding Ken Park intrigued me.

A brief recap of said controversy:

- According to Wikipedia, 'The movie was not shown in the United Kingdom after director Larry Clark punched and attempted to strangle Hamish McAlpine, the head of the UK distributor for the film, Metro Tartan. According to Clark, McAlpine expressed support for Hamas terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, and, when an appalled Clark asked him about women and children victims of Hamas terrorism, McAlpine basically said that they deserved to die, at which point the altercation began. Clark was arrested and spent several hours in custody, and McAlpine was left with a broken nose.'
- It is banned in Australia for its sexual content.
- In New Zealand, it is only able to be viewed in film festivals or film courses, due to its R18 rating.
- Since its completion in 2002, the movie has not found a distributor in the U.S.

I wasn't gonna go out of my way and order some import DVD of this for $25 (after all, the odds were I'd hate it, given the filmmakers) but I figured if I ever came across a copy a friend had, I'd give it a shot to see what all the fuss over the content was about. After years and years, that happened.

What Did I Think

I wouldn't say it's a good movie per se, but there's some good stuff in it. Lemme get to the bad stuff first, though.

What's Bad

- Utilizes several pointless voice overs and title cards in the first 15 minutes, and again at the very end of the film. There's no reason for them to be there at all. Be a slice of life, movie. Don't try to be a visual novel. Harmony's writing is far too atrocious for the latter to ever be accomplished.

- Glaringly atrocious dialogue in several scenes. Borderline after school special. I don't care that some of the characters in this movie are based on real people from news stories, I assure you they didn't talk like that one bit. Feels like Harmony got really lazy writing a few scenes, and had nobody to tell him his shit stank.

- Several stupid character arcs, and useless scenes.

- Terrible cinematography. Far too many close ups. Zoom the fuck out and leave the camera be sometimes. Tell a story with the kind of shots you use and when, for chrissake.

What's Good

- Great acting performances all around.

- All sex and violence is handled remarkably tastefully.

What Is It Banned For Then

I have no fucking clue. People are retarded. I don't particularly care for Clark or Korine, but I don't think any of their movies deserve not to be seen. Especially not this one, which is the best thing I've seen of either of them. There are a lot good scenes in this, and I wish sex was handled this well in most movies with LESS graphic content. I don't feel any real need to see this movie straight through ever again, but particular scenes I would watch over.

I probably wouldn't watch another Harmony Korine movie, as the idea of him having full control over one of his scripts makes me cringe, but I will watch Larry Clark's other stuff. Could be good.

Movie Review: Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace

96 min.



What Am I Doing With This Movie
I’m convinced some pretty cool, nerdy people work in programming at HD movie channels such as HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc., because every once in a while they sneak in horror gems such as this— and in the past, The Gate, Night of the Creeps, From Beyond— movies that studios will probably never see the use in releasing on Blu-Ray. Thank you, nerds. I know you’re out there, and I thank you for using your power for good.

What Dude I Heard This Movie Is God Awful
This is the movie nobody asked for— a Halloween sequel with no Michael Myers in it, or connection to him whatsoever. You see, after Halloween II, John Carpenter and Debra Hill decided fuck Michael Myers, he’s not that great a character in the first place, let’s just produce a movie a year in an ongoing Halloween series, where each year we’ll have another unique serial killer do something fucked up on Halloween night. It was a clever concept, but the cards were stacked against them from the start.

Since the movie-going public craved Michael Myers, this movie had to be better than or equal to the first Halloween movie for them to accept it. Such a feat would be near impossible without Carpenter or a similar established talent writing or directing. Their choice of Tommy Lee Wallace, who’s previous film experience was only in writing a mediocre sequel to The Amityville Horror, was pretty dumb.

As to be expected, this film was not better than Halloween. The mere fact that there was no Michael Myers made the movie seem all the worse to movie-goers, when in actuality, this is a pretty good, sparingly flawed horror movie that would probably have been received well if it wasn’t released as a Halloween sequel.

What’s Good
- The opening titles are phenomenal, and one of my favorites of all time:

(Youtube does not do them justice at all, they are incredibly vibrant and eerie in HD. The colors are a hell of a lot brighter, and the flashing at the end is intense. I’d suck a dick to see this in a movie theater.)

- Tom Atkins. I could watch this guy in anything. If you loved him in Night of the Creeps, here he is in a starring role (albeit a less over-the-top performance) but he kicks ass.

- The commercials in the movie for halloween masks are fantastic. The jingle is infectious. If they sound familiar, Richard Kelly used them in Donnie Darko.

- Good pace. Though this is a cheesy, stupid horror movie, I did find myself getting interested in the story, which is an impressive feat given how ludicrous the events in this movie are.

- The female lead is hot. She's like if you fused together that tough chick that was on a few seasons of Saved By The Bell and Shelley Duvall. She's not a good actress, but she's fun to look at.

- Unusual and, quite memorable gore. There aren't a lot of gory moments, but they're all pretty great.

What's Bad
Preposterous third act that took me out of the movie completely. While the actually ending is pretty good, the climax is atrocious. I mean, it's enjoyably bad in parts, but fuck, I'm talking plot holes galore, and absolutely no suspense to the climax. That's really the only thing that hurts this movie, which would probably be a 4 1/2 if it weren't for it. That other 1/2 unaccounted for would be how badly it starts after the pristine opening credits.

What I Learned Watching This Movie
- Just because a movie has 'witch' in the title doesn't mean there has to be a witch in it.

- Doctors don't really have to go to work per se. They can leave the hospital whenever they want, and for days at a time even.

- Robots bleed orange.