Angustia (Anguish)

John, who lives with his overbearing mother (the incomparable Zelda Rubinstein), goes around killing people and cutting their eyes out (yes, we see that part). Apparently, his mother is the one sending him out to do so. She has some telekinetic connection with him. I think. Or maybe he is under hypnosis. In any case, nasty things are happening as a consequence.

But wait!

This is not actually the film we are watching. This is the film The Mommy, currently showing at the Rex. What we are actually watching is the people watching The Mommy.

And if that weren't meta enough (and, mind you, Anguish was made during a time when meta wasn't a thing yet), John is going to a movie theater to watch The Lost World and cut out a few eyes while he's there.

So there are shots from the back of the movie theater showing a shot of the back of a movie theater showing The Lost World. In the movie theater (the Rex. Do try to keep up.) a mad man is in attendance. He has watched The Mommy so many times, he knows the entire dialogue. Also, he is armed and shoots everyone in the lobby and the bathroom, before tying the doors to the theater shut and going back in, taking a girl hostage.

While he is doing that, John is doing the same thing. And panic breaks out in that theater at the same time as dinosaurs cause people to panic onscreen in The Lost World. And this is mirrored by people running to-and-fro in the Rex.

And of course, John will eventually end up in the film we are really watching.

Sounds confusing? It is.

4/10

Evil Dead II

I took a couple of weeks off from posting or, rather, from watching movies because I was preoccupied with working my way through all nine seasons of The Office.

My return to the blog is part 2 of the Evil Dead series.

Following this is a re-telling of part 1 in which our hero Ash only takes his girlfriend to the deserted cabin of the first installment. The find the book, girl loses her head, Ash is left to face the evil spirits all alone. He does lose a body part, as well. To save himself from alien hand syndrome he cuts the affected limb off with a chainsaw. And he goes slightly mad.

Soon he is joined by a group of four people, one of them the daughter of the owner of the cabin. Her scientist father found and translated the evil book and it was his voice on tape that called on the evil spirits. The daughter now brings with her the means to undo all that - missing pages.

But before they are saved of anything more blood will flow.

Basically the same as part one with different cast (except for the wonderful Bruce Campbell). The main difference is that this one does not take itself too seriously.

7/10

The Living Daylights

James Bond, in this incarnation played by Timothy Dalton, has to deal with a defecting KGB officer that is to be brought to save haven (my beautiful Vienna!) before taking him to Britain.

But is is all a ploy by the KGB guy, who in reality is in cahoots with an American arms dealer. He is also buying diamonds and with them paying for drugs. So really, he has quite a few irons in the fire. The only one to see through the original ruse - why, James Bond, of course.

The lady by his side is a lovelorn cellist who assumes Bond is helping her to reunite with her KGB agent (who is willing to sacrifice her in a flash). So we travel to Bratislava, Vienna, Tangiers and Afghanistan, always following the bad guys from the agent to the diamonds to the drugs.

Yes, it is a lot to take in.

My biggest bother is that Bond activates a bomb with a timer to blow up the drugs. The bomb is on a plane that is set to take off, shortly. Why he would the timer set to ten minutes only is beyond me. He is obviously just setting himself up for trouble. But, this is a James Bond film, so...whatever.

As for Timothy Dalton - I liked him more than I thought I would.

6/10