TiVoPlex
By John Seal
March 4, 2013
Thursday 3/7/13
1:00 AM HBO
The Revenant (2009 USA): First, the good news: this is an ambitious, funny, and politically charged horror comedy about an Iraq war soldier (David Anders) who comes back to life after his remains are returned home to Los Angeles. It’s not all hearts and flowers stateside, though, as our hero soon discovers he must ingest substantial amounts of blood in order to stay animate. With the help of a pal (Chris Wylde), he works assiduously to reap a sanguinary harvest from L.A. low lifes – but soon enough, the pair are compelled to start bending their own rules. On the negative side of the ledger, The Revenant is about half an hour too long for it’s own good, with some scenes dragging and others surplus to requirements. On balance, though, I appreciate writer-director D. Kerry Prior’s effort to do something different (and controversial) with the horror genre. Think of it as a funny version of Bob Clark’s Vietnam-era fright fest Deathdream, and you’re more than halfway there.
6:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Sea Bat (1930 USA): This South Seas adventure is worth watching for its cast alone. Charles Bickford headlines as Reverend Sims, a preacher man concealing a dark secret whilst pitching woo to Nina (Raquel Torres), an angry young woman still bitter about the death of her brother at the hands (flippers?) of "The Sea Bat", which is actually a very large manta ray. Also on hand: John Miljan, Nils Asther, Boris Karloff, Mack Swain, and Greed’s Gibson Gowland as a sailor named, delightfully, Limey.
1:20 PM HBO Signature
Juan de los Muertos (2011 ESP-CUB): Okay, this I never expected to see: a shot-in-Havana zombie comedy in which the living dead are described as political dissidents by the Cuban government and media! I guess Raul Castro really has started to loosen the government’s grip on some aspects of art and the economy, because I just can’t imagine Fidel letting something like this get produced behind the Sugar Cane Curtain. Known in English as Juan of the Dead, Juan do los Muertos is an inferior-in-every-way tribute to Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead, but unique and fun enough to still warrant your attention.
Friday 3/8/13
3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Dial 1119 (1950 USA): A young psycho comes to town and takes a bar full of average Joes and Janes hostage. While this low budget MGM pseudo-noir is not as good as this brief precis implies, it’s short, reasonably entertaining, and stars Marshall "Daktari" Thompson as the disturbed vet who shows up one day on the Greyhound. A still hairy William Conrad appears as Chuckles the Bartender and long time Gong Show punch-line Keefe Braselle plays a waiter.
10:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
Lisa (1962 GB-USA): A Holocaust drama light on Holocaust and more interested in interpersonal relationships and romance, Lisa stars Dolores Hart as a Jewish girl saved from the ovens by a Dutch policeman (Stephen Boyd) who rescues her from white slaver Marius Goring and then tries to smuggle her into Palestine. Boyd is badly miscast, his lightweight performance an unfortunate distraction from Nelson Gidding’s solid screenplay, but a fine supporting cast – including Donald Pleasence, Harry Andrews, Finlay Currie, and Leo McKern – provides sufficient counterbalance. Also of note is Arthur Ibbetson’s fine cinematography, best appreciated in its original aspect ratio – which, thankfully, is how it will be seen this morning.
Continued:
1
2
3
Print this column
