Some Films

The Car was a Svengoolie movie a few weeks back, but was not able to see it so borrowed it from the library. There was a sequel just released (familiar face Ronnie Cox pops up again, but in a different role) around thirty years later.  (There was also a sequel just released to I Spit on Your Grave ... clearly a must see.)  The original was critically panned, but as a whole, I liked it.  The acting, pacing and sense of dread all work pretty well. 

It involves a killer car that pops up suddenly and starts killing people. The film is rather dark for a midnight classic.  For instance, after a couple of college aged fresh faced kids are killed while riding bikes, a familiar face (hey! it's the Crazy Like the Fox son) sees a wife being smacked around by her husband.  Who never gets his comeuppance.  The old sheriff is killed, but it doesn't stop there -- multiple police officers are killed.  The spunky school teacher/love interest of Josh Brolin?  She's killed too!  They finally do beat the car but they use some explosives to bury it in some rocks. The end credits suggest "he" continues on.  Well, that's typical.

A Twitter thread recently covered films where women murder men. It was curious to me that Practical Magic was cited since to me it was a weak Alice Hoffman adaption. A few praised this French film though there is some English spoken (didn't realize it, but says here that the woman is an American socialite), which is a rape revenge flick.  One charm is that there isn't that much exploitation -- the rape is largely off screen and the nudity we see (including a quick shot, as usual notable, of a penis) is basically all of one guy. But, overall, not sure how much the film changes usually tropes (female revenge films are a thing too) as a whole. 

Can see why people like it -- she is a badass -- but had mixed feelings myself.  It took a bit too long to get her into the desert and she did seem to be portrayed as something of a tease, including when her boyfriend's (she is his mistress) two friends come over. Perhaps, this is where some woman says that is just my gloss, and what am I doing, justifying the rape? Well, no, but it does seem she was doing that.  Anyway, after the rape (one of the guys walks in when it is about to happen, we get a close shot of him chewing some food [ewww] and he walks out and turns the t.v. up to cover her screaming), she refuses to be bribed. And, runs into the desert. Socialite done; now she is action girl.

Then, she survives some fall off a cliff [her boyfriend pushes her off; this is where the guy who does the rape comes off as not the worse guy] where she is impaled and is able to go on the whole way (ditto the final conflict, after the guy is shot).  Okay, so we can use some poetic license, but that was a bit ridiculous.  Plus, to quote Wikipedia, this was cool: "hides in a cave and uses the peyote to numb herself before removing the branch and cauterizing the wound with an aluminum beer can, branding herself with the beer's phoenix logo."  You want to see this woman again.

The movie has some of the usual tropes. The guys repeatedly, even after one was killed for this very reason, separate.  This makes it easier for her, though not too easy (e.g., a piece of her ear was shot off).  A bit was made to show she isn't just you know a former military special forces person (though she knows how to load a rifle, she is thrown backward the first time she shoots one ... still, it all comes off as a bit of a fantasy, when other revenge flicks didn't lay that on as thick).  But, the woman was impaled on a stick and is trekking around in a way even someone in good shape would find rather taxing.  Anyways.  We have the usual final obligatory conflict that is drawn out, which I found a tad annoying too. 

Last Saturday on Svengoolie was the classic The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, which was fun (some of these Svengoolie movies are somewhat dull) though we see very little of the actual woman (besides a big hand, she comes in the finale via some cheap special effects).  The Hallmark movie, Love Takes Two was enjoyable too (it also actually had African-American leads; these films usually toss in a POC as a friend or something).  The romance was fairly low key and we had something that occurs at times in these films -- a couple decides, in a friendly fashion, they aren't meant to be in particular because they have different goals in life.

One or more might be forthcoming.