mezenov

Yes, folks, here he is, Brian Yuzna, the one and only, bringing us another slice of pure first-class cinephiliac cheese. And oh how much we love it! I must admit that at first I was a bit disappointed to know that Yuzna decided to come back to Re-animator story - as I am more a fan of Yuzna recent works, like Faust: Love Of The Damned (yeah - loved it SO much!). But then again, with ironic title like that, I realized this could be very good. And it is good indeed - or I should rather say much, much better then I expected. The film takes place in prison and has a bit claustrophobic feel to it. There's a young prison doctor eager to help West continue with his research (He's also said to be one of the best students in the University, yet when the very first patient arrives he mysteriously fails to do anything remotely effective except yelling on top of his lungs at his nurse). There's a blond reporter looking for a story and ending up undergoing horrible transformations (That seems to be Yuzna's thing with blond heroines - to make them undergo horrible transformations...Fine by me ;-)) There's a sadistic warden named (bizarrely) Brando, who in the end gets what he deserves - and then some. There's even a mutant rat, as if it wasn't enough yet. Yuzna handles this fine mess confidently - there are enough neat tricks and nice touches to satisfy all the movie maniacs. The effects are really really nice - watch out for the detached human torso seeking revenge on West! All in all, Beyond Re-animator is pure pleasure - isn't this what we're looking for in movies, no?

It seemed to me, that PT Anderson decided to make a deliberate detour from creating sweeping emotional epics a-la Magnolia and try something else for a change. Strangely enough, in the end he came up with a very-Tom DiCillo film, turning Adam Sandler into John Turturro in the process. Mind you, that's not a problem with me at all, since I'm a great fan of Tom DiCillo's work and I also happen to consider John Turturro an excellent actor. Punch-Drunk Love is endearing in its small-scale excentrity, but still it feels more like an experiment on behalf of the writer-director, rather than a heartfelt project. Oh well, it doesn't matter all that much I guess, since I greatly enjoyed this film and was once again made certain of the fact that PT Anderson is an excellent director capable of many exciting things. Here's to his next project, friends