Murph-15

This is a great "small" film. I say "small" because it doesn't have a hundred guns firing or a dozen explosions, as in a John Woo film. Great performances by Roy Scheider and the three "bad guys". John Frankenheimer seems to have more luck with small productions these days. The film is very easy to watch, the story is more of a yarn than a washing machine--instead of everything going around and around, it seems as though things just get worse as the plot thickens. Wonderful ending, very positive. I never read the Elmore Leonard book, but it can't be much different from the film because it FEELS like I'm watching an Elmore Leonard movie.

SCHRAMM is Buttgereit's approach to the serial killer craze hitting the big screens recently. Of course it is extremely disturbing, but it is as fun as a carnival ride. It seems as though Buttgereit puts disturbing imagery and ideas into his films without being outright disgusting, a very hard thing to do with his subject matter. SCHRAMM is 62 minutes long, proving that a movie doesn't necessarily need to be at least 90 minutes to be good. The film is edited in a way that defies a logical time line, very much like SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE. SCHRAMM gets it's title from the main character, Lothar Schramm, who is a taxi driver and the notorious "Lipstick Killer" in Germany. Not exactly a "happy" story, but it's definitely a lot more fun than HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER. The violence and gore is disturbing, but rather comical in its unrealistic low budget effects. A WORD OF ADVICE--as with all of Buttgereit's films, the viewer should have an open mind and should have developed a certain level of desensitization to gore films. The gore is extremely disturbing, especially to those who "aren't quite ready for that type of thing". Funny, sad, and very entertaining, especially if you have an interest in film editing.