hideyotsuburaya

Quite a lot of money was spent recreating 1930's Hollywood & NYC in glitzy high-fashion. Wide-angle lenses used apparently to show it off (you can see the visual distortions). Jessie E. carries the film fairly well. My one complaint is Mr. Allen tends to heavily populate the background with cardboard stereotypical characters as he's done in past films. To me it's belabored and they almost could've been left out. Otherwise I still eagerly look forward to his yearly film product.

Major period anachronism, if nobody else's already pointed it out: SOJIN piano played in a early scene, you can see the brand name, and this was a 1980's Korean piano manufacturer!

i titled this review as i did because yes MAMA is turning into a tried-and-true cultish hit, judging by what i've seen of its performances here lately. it remains for weekly late night shows only. endlessly bizarre and domestically nightmarish episodes, it has the potential at least of grabbing you early on. another post here claims "the last 30 minutes shot itself in the head", well i think the last 30 minutes steamrolls into a chasm of story tangents ridiculing all your narrative perceptions. the plot in a nutshell? ha! i defy anyone to condense or cogently summarize what develops in MAMA, beyond 'your 2 nieces--thought dead 5 yrs ago--have been found growing up wild in the woods, and now for the bad news....'

Onion Movie reminds me of, and even has things in common with, John Landis' Amazon Women On The Moon. one legacy shared is both films sat on the shelf (alright, different shelves) for a few years before lucky enough to get released. Rodney Dangerfield appears in this film, posthumously, owing to this. i'll admit there were a few bits here that went nobly towards redeeming the remaining junkyard of comedy discards. like "armed gunman thwarts armed gunman", just to emphasize i actually watched it. for maximum, if any, viewing pleasure see Onion Movie alongside whatever rowdy inebriated crowd you can invite over this Saturday night