SLEEPING DOGS: I GUESS YOU HAD TO BE THERE

 

I’ve gone back and read reviews of this film to find out what others loved about it, to discover why it was considered such a milestone. Upon reading those reviews I gathered it was a milestone because it was unlike anything to come out of New Zealand at the time. That being said I still didn’t find myself thinking it was a movie I’d choose to revisit.

Sam Neill stars as Smith, a young man who as the film opens is leaving behind his wife and two daughters. It seems his wife has had an affair with a man named Bullen (Ian Mune) who is now moving in. Smith leaves behind his world and moves on to another area where he enquires about living on an island owned by a Maori tribe. Given permission as well as a dog they don’t want, he does so and sets about making a new life for himself there. Among the things he finds in the house still standing is an old military radio.

While this is going on there is unrest in the country. A fuel crisis has led to revolutionaries popping up to lead a rebellion and a police state brought about by their actions. It turns out that Bullen was a leader in the revolutionaries and this has put him and Smith’s ex in jeopardy.

Smith returns home one day to find a hole dug on his property. As he’s trying to figure out what was in the hole a group of soldiers arrives and take him prisoner while ransacking his house. They find remnants of explosives, what was in the hole, and arrest Smith, taking him to a facility where he is left in a large basement. And ex-schoolmate now an officer gives Smith two options: a formal trial where he will be found guilty and executed or he can plead guilty and leave the country forever.

Smith is then being transported when he escapes and thinks he’s found safe haven working at a motel under a new name. Then Bullen shows and tells him the motel is run by revolutionaries and gives him no choice but to follow instructions. A group of soldiers is coming to stay at the motel and Smith is to give a signal at a specified time. I’ll stop here with the description since that’s most of the movie.

I truly had a hard time with this movie for so many reasons. I could set aside the look of the film, a grainy bland look in all things seen from cityscapes to country sides. But it was more than that I found difficult. The acting felt stilted and put on. The story itself felt disjointed at best and confusing at worst. Why does Smith’s wife take up with this revolutionary? What about the kids? Why does Smith seem complacent about leaving? Is he being set up from day one or a victim of circumstance? Most of the movie provides questions rather than answers including the ending.

I’m sure there is a market for the film and in looking at several sites have read reviews that were favorable for the movie. I can’t bring myself to do so, even though I’m a fan of the star as well as director Roger Donaldson. I know this was Donaldson’s first feature but still I couldn’t get into it and found it difficult to watch. Completists will want to add this to their collection though.

Arrow, true to their desire to offer the best presentation possible, is releasing this in a cleaned up blu-ray format. Extras include a commentary track with Donaldson, Neill and Mune, THE MAKING OF SLEEPING DOGS a 65 minute making of featurette, the theatrical trailer, a reversible sleeve with new artwork by Sean Phillips and for the first pressing only in illustrated booklet with new writing on the film by Neil Mitchell, a contemporary review by Pauline Keal and the original press book.

In the long run I’d say this is for fans and completists only.

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BLUE VENGEANCE: A MANIAC ON A ROCK BOTTOM BUDGET

There are movies that achieve a cult status among collectors and fans that go from worthy to unworthy to what the heck are people thinking. It’s not the movie itself that is good or bad but the value placed on it by the fans of the film. So when you see a particular release come out and watch it only to be disappointed keep in mind that somewhere, someone is more likely enjoying that same film in spite of its flaws. Like this one.

The movie focuses on two characters. The first is Mark Trax (John Weiner), a psychopath locked up long ago who escapes from the mental institute during the opening sequence. He gets away leaving bloodied bodies behind, gets a lift hitchhiking, kills the driver and makes off with his vehicle. Finding another ride he leaves that driver behind as well, incinerating the car with the body inside to make everyone believe he’s dead.

The second character is Mickey McCardle (J. Christian Ingvordsen). Mickey is the cop who captured Trax when he was younger but during the arrest accidentally killed his partner as well. Plagued to this day by his actions at the time no one wants to team with him but he’s still on the force promoted to detective now.

Trax returns to his boyhood home and mother where he finds the tools of his trade still there in his room. Various medieval looking weapons are on hand and Trax soon delves off into the fantasy land in his own mind where he’s facing off in Conan garb against a demon inspired opponent dressed the same. This sets him back on his quest for body parts in this battle.

Trax begins to rack up a body count and the first victim, an obnoxious club owner, has his eyes and removed and is decapitated. When Mickey hears about this he knows this is the killer he once caught back on the loose and beginning a new reign of terror. But his boss and those above him aren’t convinced and tell him to stick with the job he has now and leave homicide to those detectives.

Mickey continues to pursue Trax and dig for clues. One of those leads to a young female photographer named Tiffany (Garland Hunter) who took Trax’ picture at the club the night of the first murder. A rock fan and drug user she at first butts heads with Mickey but eventually is won over to his side and attempts to help him find Trax.

The pair are fighting an uphill battle as Trax continues his rampage. To make matters worse the bureaucrats above Mickey seem more concerned with his methods than they are at finding the killer. It isn’t long before Mickey and Tiffany are on their own with no one else helping them find Trax.

In reading my description here the movie actually sounds better than it is. Much of that is due to the fact that the budget on the film is miniscule at best and the acting ranges from fantastic to terrible. The bad part is that the good acting seems to come from those with the smallest roles, in particular Tony Kruk as Mickey’s direct supervisor. Ingvordsen also turns in a decent job but for the most part feels like his performance is a roller coaster with highs and lows on display.

The film is co-directed by Ingvordsen and Danny Kuchuck who both seem to have been influenced by Abel Ferarra. Not being a fan of anything I’ve seen by Ferarra that’s not a compliment. Like his films this one offers a glimpse into the seedier side of NYC with spray pained buildings, trash covered streets and rusted out car yards and factories. The characters on the sidelines are always trashy looking and seem to have no redeeming value. It doesn’t paint a picture of the city that makes it shine. Then again perhaps that’s why the police department doesn’t take as keen an interest in catching the killer as Mickey does, relegating these place and people to nothing more than statistics when it comes to being killed. Still, it doesn’t make for an entertaining film.

And yet the film does have its fans. It has developed a cult following over the years. And those fans have clamored for a decent copy of the film to enjoy. The folks at Vinegar Syndrome are providing that for the first time with this release. This release is the first time the movie has appeared on blu-ray with a 2k restoration from the original 35mm negative. The end results is a less washed out better picture than the film has seen since it was originally released on screens back in 1989.

If just having the best looking version of the film weren’t enough, Vinegar Syndrome has pulled together and impressive number of extras for fans to enjoy as well. Included in the extras are a commentary track with Ingvordsen, a commentary track with Weiner, MAKING OF BLUE VENGEANCE a making of featurette, ON BLUE VENGEANCE a conversation with Ingvordsen, reversible cover artwork and THE FIRST MAN an unreleased movie from 1996 by co-writer/director Danny Kuchuck that stars Lesley Ann Warren, Heather Graham and Ted Raimi.

As I said the movie may not be for everyone. But slasher flick fans, die-hard anything horror fans, fans of Abel Ferrara, fans of low budget film making and fans of the film will want to add this one to their collection. They might also want to sing the praises of Vinegar Syndrome for making the effort to save and restore films like this. 

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BRUCE’S DEALY FINGERS: PROOF BRUCE LEE WAS IRREPLACEABLE

With his death in 1973 the world lost perhaps the most charismatic star of martial arts. His legend continues to grow and since that time while there have been numerous stars to take on the format none of achieved the status of Lee. After his passing there were tons of imitators attempting to take on the mantle of martial arts stars but they were pale comparisons. In fact most of them were down right terrible. But their movies coming out when they did do deserve a place in film history due to the decision to use his name in every way conceivable.

The variations of Bruce Lee’s name were steady at the time. Some “stars” simply went by “Bruce” something. Then there were the variations of his last name including “Li” “Le” and more. Each actor had his hair cut to resemble the original star and more often than not there was some small resemblance in their facial features. But still they were nowhere near the expert Lee was nor had the amount of charisma he had.

Which brings us to this film. The star here is Bruce Le as Bruce. As for a plot well that gets kind of tricky. The film jumps from one item to the next and gets so convoluted that trying to understand what is happening when gets tricky. Making matters worse is when good guys fight each other because they aren’t aware they’re both good guys.

Basic plotline then. A bad guy martial arts expert and mob boss wants the “kung fu finger book” written by Bruce Lee himself. Throughout the movie he sends thugs to various places to search for the book. Then we have another story going on where a loser has a gambling debt to pay off so he tells his girlfriend to become a hooker for the mobster he owes the money to. She refuses but the mobster tells her he’s going to make her. Why she gets to the point of being placed in jeopardy because of this so called boyfriend is one of many things that don’t make sense. Not enough story? Well the girl happens to be Bruce Le’s sister and he comes looking for her. In his search he learns about the mobster seeking the book and gets involved with that as well.

The movie is filled with some of the most drawn out passive and wasteful scenes put to film. Moments of people sitting and talking but saying nothing, especially anything that moves the story forward. Scenes jump from one group of characters to another with no introduction of who they are or what they’re involvement is but they meet and fight or confront one another. Why some people are questioned while looking for the book is never explained either. It’s as if they bad buys pulled out a phone book and stuck a finger in it and decided that’s who they’d question.

To say this is a bad movie is to insult bad movies. It doesn’t even qualify as a movie so bad it’s good. Perhaps given the MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER treatment it might be bearable. As it is I would suggest it only to die hard martial arts fans and even they will be disappointed. Or perhaps if you want to collect every movie with the various versions of Bruce Lee clones you’ll want to add this to your collection. For everyone else I’d suggest something more tolerable like finger nail extraction.

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