Absolute Evil

This is simply a beautiful film to watch. The characters are all believable and the story is true love equates redemption. David Carradine is spectacular and I left the film wanting more of him. The 2 leads, unknowns, will not remain unknown for long. The chemistry between the two was palpable. Caroyn Neff,lovely and petulant at times works her favor upon Rusty Joiner and I actually wondered if these two were an item. There is a "montgomery Cliff" type of sadness that Joiner brings to the genre and I actually felt as though I needed to embrace him...He is easy on the eyes in a Brad Pitt way, as well. Ulli Lommel's cameo sets the record straight that the man still has it. I'd love to see him star in a film. There is a screen presence that is stellar. He plays an aging hit-man with conviction and just a hint of tongue in cheek attitude. I will certainly buy this film when released, but I am hoping to see it again on the big screen here in the U.S. Anyone who his loved and lost cannot help but identify with this film.

I'm not certain how Ulli Lommel's empty thriller Absolute Evil got into the Berlin film festival, but after the woeful Daniel the Magician from a few years ago, I'm surprised, very surprised. Toplined David Carradine plays a jovial sort of gangster which is a small role in this home-made thriller film. The story has a woman chasing after her father's killers about 15 years too late. A torture/waterboarding scene is the primal image in Absolute Evil -- it is the scene that Lommel cuts back to frequently, and becomes the symbol of how this movie grates on the nerves.

Absolute Evil borrows from such films as Kill Bill and Planet of the Apes, but steals more heavily from Lommel's own C-grade horror efforts, such as The Boogeyman, BTK Killer, Green River Killer, Killer Pickton, and Mummy Maniac.

In other words, Absolute Evil borrows extensively from other filmmakers. There are a few fancy cinematic moments in Absolute Evil, and if one looked carefully one might find these, too, have been borrowed from other movies.

Absolute Evil is technically terrible -- the lighting and sound are in particular abysmal. The reviewer for Hollywood Reporter got it right when he said, the film "is quite simply excruciating to watch." Whoever wrote in the IMDb comments that this was a great movie must have mistaken Absolute Evil for some other flick.

"I only want you to love me" is the title of a Fassbinder movie. Ulli Lommel, who once was Fassbinder's partner in many movies, seems to have adapted this slogan for his main characters.

Whether it's his cult hit "Tenderness of the Wolves" (1973) or his bizarre serial killer series with Lionsgate in the U.S., all his main characters seem to scream the same desire.

In "Absolute Evil" David Carradine, who plays the angry leader of the 17th Street gang, yearns for love, but doesn't know how to give it. The film is an homage to all film noires, all suspense thrillers, especially from the 1940s. The story moves along like a cool spider web, slowly but steadily grabbing you by the tail and sucking you up in its horrific universe of revenge, torture, redemption and murder.

It's one of the best indie low-budget films I have seen in years. How the hell can I get my hands on a DVD? Who's releasing this gem?

What a pathetic excuse for a film. Ulli Lommel is infamous for his zero-budget slasher flicks, so incompetently made that even Aunt Martha's home movies look like Kurosawa, but with this abomination Lommel really hit rock bottom. The script and dialog is nonsensical and ridiculous and the "photography" doesn't deserve to be called that (just put the camera in a corner on auto setting, push record and pray for the best). Seeing other "reviewers" compare it to Fassbinder is a joke. It is obvious that the persons responsible for this laughable excuse for a movie have absolutely zero clue about film-making, framing, acting, writing, structure or taste. To be avoided at all cost.

I saw "Absolute Evil' at Berlin International Film Festival in Zoo Palast theater. The premiere and the next screening of the movie were sold out and it's one of the biggest theaters - if not the biggest - in Berlin. It had a great review on a German magazine so I wanted to see it and I was lucky enough to get the ticket.

"Absolute Evil' is simply the best film Ulli Lommel has made since 1980s. And the important thing is that it proofs that the director still has his talent after all these serial killer movies and everything.

The movie tells a story about Savannah (Carolyn Neff) who's boyfriend Cooper (Rusty Joiner) gets killed after she finds out who Cooper really is. She wants to find out the killer of Cooper, and things leads to the old leader of 17th street gang, Raf (David Carradine). I don't want to tell too much about the movie, so that's all I say about the story.

There is some great performances by the actors. Neff is beautiful, believable and good in her first big film role, Joiner gives a touching performance and the "old stars" Christopher Kriesa, Ulli Lommel and David Carradine are as good as always. It's nice to see that Carradine has made at least one good movie after "Kill Bill" films.

It's a must see and it was b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l on the big screen in a theater with 1,000 people.