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2008
4 articles from 2009
[DVD Review] Mirageman
7 October 2009 7:03 AM, PDT
| JustPressPlay.net
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I remember watching the trailer for Mirageman two years ago. It seemed like a fresh idea at the time. A martial arts enthusiast becomes a superhero who fights crime using only his fists. Fast-forward two years later, the novelty has worn off a little, but it’s still a passable poor man’s Batman (literally). No superpowers, no high-tech armor, no infinite wealth, not even sharp detective skills. Just a guy, a home-stitched mask, and a will.
Mirageman’s secret identity is Maco (Marko Zaror), a meek-but-deadly guy who lives in a small apartment and works as a nightclub bouncer. As Mirageman, he does pretty good handling mostly small fishes. He’s not all that smart, see. He just knows how to win a fight. Maco has a brother, who was left a mental patient when their parents’ killers raped him. Here’s where Mirageman shows off a pretty interesting
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- Arya Ponto
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DVD Of The Week: Next Day Air
15 September 2009 3:03 PM, PDT
| GreenCine Daily
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Next Day Air
Directed by Benny Boom
2009, 84 minutes, USA
Summit Entertainment
Scott Sanders' Black Dynamite (opening theatrically in the U.S. next month) meticulously spoofs the blaxploitation genre and all its pimps, dope pushers, martial artistry, noticeable boom mics, and funky bow-chicka-wowness, but while co-creator and star Michael Jai White's muscular comic charisma impresses, the film itself does not. The problem is that blaxploitation—unlike science-fiction, horror movies, and strangely for this argument, westerns—is so anchored to the music and mood of the grindhouse era that there's little place for reverent homage in 2009. That Black Dynamite deadpans like it came straight outta 1972 without addressing the flashback through contemporary hindsight, nor at any other time strives for the over-the-top giddiness of its climactic nunchaku showdown against Richard Nixon, underscores its irrelevance. We're better off watching Truck Turner again and appreciating that this kind of filmmaking back then was the real deal,
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Four Blaxploitation Films Off the Beaten Path
17 February 2009 8:09 AM, PST
| ifc.com
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By this point, we're all familiar with "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" and "Superfly" and "Shaft," we know all about Pam Greer and Fred Williamson and Jim Brown. But the 1970s produced dozens and dozens of blaxploitation films beyond the handful that have come to stand-in for the entire genre. Many were formulaic, some were downright terrible, but a lot were a cut above. These four uniquely superb blaxploitation films, largely forgotten to history, deserve rediscovery by new audiences and fresh eyes.
"Across 110th Street" (1972)
Directed by Barry Shear
Some 30 years before the groundbreaking crime series "The Wire," an unassuming blaxploitation picture covered similar territory with much the same complexity, albeit on a much smaller scale and with significantly fewer critical accolades. Both were shot in real locations with local actors; both draw parallels between the structure and politics of the underworld and the police force. Often in "Across 110th Street,
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- Matt Singer
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Four Blaxploitation Films Off the Beaten Path
12 February 2009 6:52 AM, PST
| ifc.com
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»
By Matt Singer
By this point, we're all familiar with "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" and "Superfly" and "Shaft," we know all about Pam Greer and Fred Williamson and Jim Brown. But the 1970s produced dozens and dozens of blaxploitation films beyond the handful that have come to stand-in for the entire genre. Many were formulaic, some were downright terrible, but a lot were a cut above. These four uniquely superb blaxploitation films, largely forgotten to history, deserve rediscovery by new audiences and fresh eyes.
"Across 110th Street" (1972)
Directed by Barry Shear
Some 30 years before the groundbreaking crime series "The Wire," an unassuming blaxploitation picture covered similar territory with much the same complexity, albeit on a much smaller scale and with significantly fewer critical accolades. Both were shot in real locations with local actors; both draw parallels between the structure and politics of the underworld and the police force. Often in "Across 110th Street,
»
- Matt Singer
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2009 |
2008
4 articles from 2009
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