A look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs, and on more distant horizons…
Trailers of new release movies are generally available on the official site links.
IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):
Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance (2009): The second part of the planned Evangelion remake trilogy reaches these shores, featuring more mysticism, more demonic Angels, more Eva pilots, and more spectacle and confusion. Read our review of Evangelion 1.11 here for an idea of what it’s all about. It’s showing sporadically across the country. Evangelion 2.0 official website.
Zenith (2010): Sci-fi conspiracy mindbender with a cool premise: in the future everyone has been genetically altered to feel perpetual happiness, so an entrepreneur makes a living pushing drugs that cause people to feel sad. Even cooler: Slant’s Glenn Heath Jr. says “the indescribably odd ending only sends the viewer off more confused.” Sounds good, but distribution is predictably weak: check your local listings. Zenith official site.
IN DEVELOPMENT:
1884: Yesterday’s Future (est. 2012): How’s this for a twisty concept: it’s a film made in 1848 (before the invention of film) about a “futuristic” steampunk 1884 in which Britain has colonized the moon. We’re not happy to see that it’s animated and campy, because we think the idea would look much cooler if it reinvented “actual” movie techniques from the fake period, but it still sounds more “out there” than anything Hollywood’s come up with lately. Oh, and it’s being made by Terry Gilliam‘s godson. 1884: Yesterday’s Future official site.
Werewolf Hunters of the Midwest (est. 2011-2012): Cory McAlbee and the Billy Nayer Show’s latest project; no idea on the plot, but the title pretty much tells all, doesn’t it? The band’s working on the soundtrack first, filming to start later this year. Werewolf Hunters of the Midwest Facebook page.
“The Wholly Family”: Speaking of Terry Gilliam, he’s been commissioned to make a 15-minute short film for the Italian pasta company Garofalo. No idea what the subject might be except that it involves the city of Naples, and Gilliam apparently was advertising for extras with circus skills. More from Bleeding Cool.
NEW ON DVD:
“Explosive Cinema – 12 Movie Collection”: Those cheap Mill Creek multi-packs full of guilty pleasures are a guilty pleasure of mine, and they should be a guilty pleasure of yours. This one supposedly features drive-in style action films, although as usual some of Mill Creek’s selections defy their genre. The most interesting film here is the wacky Nine Deaths of the Ninja (1985), with its wheelchair bound Nazis, evil lesbians and attack midgets; also along for the ride is The Skydivers (1963), Coleman Francis‘ dour and awful attempt to mix film noir with skydiving. The Hostage, Iron Angel, Killpoint, Low Blow, The Patriot, Scorpion, The Silencer, Terror in the Jungle, Top Cop and Van Nuys Blvd. round out the set. Also featuring a dude who sort of looks like Chuck Norris if you squint real hard on the cover. Buy “Explosive Cinema – 12 Movie Collection”
The Naked Kiss (1964): The Criterion Collection continues to shock with releases that sometimes seem more cult-oriented than arthouse-oriented. This odd Sam Fuller melodrama, shocking in its day, famously opens with a scene of a bald prostitute beating her pimp with a shoe. Not extremely weird, but Fuller certainly followed the beat of his own drummer. Buy The Naked Kiss (Criterion Collection)
Shock Corridor (1963): An even more shocking (rim shot) choice for Criterion treatment is Fuller’s 1963 expose of mental health malpractice, as a journalist goes undercover in an insane asylum and finds that it’s harder to get out than it was to get in. This one is a little bit weird, yeah. “Nymphos!” Buy Shock Corridor (Criteron Collection)
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Cold Dog Soup (1990): A black-comedy in the vein of After Hours that was so obscure even we’d never heard of it until it showed up on Blu-ray this week. The scenario involves Randy Quaid as a taxi driver who drives NYC all night meeting bizarre characters as he tries to rid himself of a dog’s corpse. Buy Cold Dog Soup [Blu-ray]
The Naked Kiss (1964): See entry in DVD above. Buy The Naked Kiss (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
Shock Corridor (1963): See entry in DVD above. Buy Shock Corridor (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
What are you looking forward to? If you have any weird movie leads that I have overlooked, feel free to leave them in the COMMENTS section.