Review: Zachariah (1971)

Spoilers ahoy, if you care.

Zachariah and his friend Matthew (played by a very young Don Johnson) decide to go off and be gunfighters. They meet up with an inept game, have a few heists, then Zach gets the big idea to meet up with Job Cain, the fastest gun in the west. For some reason never really explained, Zach gets cold feet and he and Matthew split up. He then meets up with a mystical old coot who takes him for a romp in the desert that somehow fills in all the blanks. Matthew guns down his boss Job then comes looking for Zach. He finds him, they don't have a shoot out but instead wrestle and then when Matthew realizes the ridiculousness of it all, they ride off into the sunset together. The end.

Zachariah is clearly a product of it's time, and by that I mean the post-Woodstock, post-Easy Rider era. The movie just reeks of the tail end of the hippie era. That in itself isn't necessarily bad, but the problem comes in when Zachariah tries to be both a deep, loner looking for the greater meaning of life movie and a comedy and a head trip movie and a western. It succeeds at none of these things.

Simply put, this movie is a mess.

Part of the problem is that it is trying to be all those things I mentioned above and succeeds at none. The comedy (written by the Firesign Theater, who I always find the definition of hit or miss) really isn't all that funny. The drama isn't that compelling. The mystical stuff is clearly in the who cares category. Very little of this movie makes sense, motivation for any of the characters is really hard to figure out.

It's clear that this movie was trying to be a hip drive-in flick, so the fact that I'm watching it 35+ years after the fact with no chemical enhancements seems to be the rest of the problem. I have to say though, I'd be curious to know what combination of drugs would make some of these sad sack jokes funny. This movie wasn't for me, so maybe I just don't get it.

However, there are two shining moments in this film and I'm using this review as an excuse to post them. First, you get a totally gratuitous (and nonsensical) opening sequence featuring the James Gang. (They return later in the movie as Job Cain's house band.)



Next, and this is truly the highlight of the film, Job Cain is played by none other than Elvin Jones! And Elvin is truly awesome in his role. This is the best scene in the whole movie, though the beginning is truncated a bit.



I mean, damn. He just shot a man and then he busts out a crazy Elvin Jones drum solo. It really doesn't get much cooler than that.

Well, I just saved you the trouble of seeking this one out as there's really nothing else redeeming about it. Unless you are a hippy western completest, stay far away. If you do get it, do yourself a favor and skip to Elvin's scenes and revel in his awesomeness.

(Here's an alternate viewpoint that goes way more in depth than I think this movie deserves. Two points he makes are especially interesting to me: one is the gay overtones between Zachariah and Matthew, which I noticed but thought it was just my imagination. The second is the film's relationship to Siddhartha, which I missed but find myself slapping my forehead about now.)

A Fist Full of Reviews

Hey! You! Wanna pretend like you were chilling with me in the Manlair tonight, slapping wax on the Rega? Arrite, here we go...



Jimmy Castor Bunch - It's Just Begun: OK, Mr. Castor really isn't an album artist, per se, but this thing hangs together really well. The title track is a killer, I mean one of the heaviest funk tracks ever. The rest of the album leans more to Castor's "Mr. Everything" philosophy, but it never dips into the schmaltz like some of his later records. Very enjoyable. Dull sounding Scorpio reissue on red wax (and why in the heck is an OG copy of this so hard to find? I've never seen one, and I've been looking.)



Joe Chambers/Larry Young - Double Exposure: Impulse purchase. One of those things I didn't know existed. Duet album between underrated drummer and one of my fave organists. But hold on! I didn't realize Chambers also played piano. First side is piano and organ duets. After Chambers doing a solo "After the Rain," he finished out the second side on drums. Sounds a little like Lifetime without guitar. Sadly, Young was dead about four months after this session. Sadly, this record left me really wanting more from these two. Both sides give you just a taste and leave you wanting a lot more. Sadly, this is a typical Scorpio reissue and side two is slightly off center.



Lou Donaldson - Musty Rusty: Oh snap! This album is smoking. Prime Lou with Grant Green and Ben Dixon (who is quickly becoming a new favorite drummer.) Billy Gardner is no Big John Patton, but he still keeps things going on the B3. This is house party jazz, stuff you can dance to, though it's not out and out funky like Lou would get about three years later. This music makes you glad to be alive and it's a damn shame Universal keeps this stuff locked up in the vaults, though there is a Spanish bootleg CD out there. And I'm convinced that Chess, like Motown, used the cheapest vinyl possible as this record looks beautiful but plays like Snap, Crackle and Pop made an uncredited cameo.



Marva Whitney with Osaka Monaurail - I Am What I Am: Finally, damn! First off, the Monaurail have NAILED the classic JB's sound. I mean, close your eyes and you'd swear you were listening to some unreleased track with Fred Wesley. And these dudes are Japanese! So, when they hook up with Marva, perhaps the most underrated of all James Brown's ladies, you know it's going to be good. And it is...mostly. There are a couple of songs on here that make me go "meh." I suppose that's keeping authentic to the 1969 vibe they have going on here, though I don't think it's intentional, that's just my taste. Still, I like this album a lot, maybe not as much as Osaka Monaurail's own Reality for the People, but when this hits, it hits hard. The big question for anyone who is not me will be is this worth the import price? The vinyl was $20. I've seen the CD as much as $15 more.

Bullet Train Blog

Right now I'm stilling on the bullet train without internet. I'll have some photos to go with this, but I just wanted to jot down a few things while I had some time.

Man, this is a fast critter but you really don't feel it until you pass another train or enter a tunnel. There's something to that one piece rail system, I guess. It's also, like nearly everything else here in Japan, a model of effency. When they tell you your train is leaving at 10:33, it's leaving at 10:33, come hell or high water.

If you've seen the movie Bullet Train, with Sonny Chiba in a minor role, it's nothing like that though. If you haven't, that's the movie Hollywood ripped off for Speed. No bombs on the train, thank goodness.

We're on the way to Kyoto. We don't have too much of an agenda, like how most of this trip is running. That's just how Kristen and I roll. There's a lantern festival we're going to try to check out, but that's about it. Wednesday we'll be back at the Conrad in Tokyo and all that.

I think my time is running short, but I wanted to do a few quick reviews. It's been ages since I've done anything and I have some time, so here goes.

First up, Lode Runner DS. Basically, if you played any previous version of Lode Runner, you know what you're in for. There's nothing new, it's just Lode Runner and the Champion edition. There's really not even anything special for the DS, which is a good thing. You see the full map on the top screen (which I end up watching most of the time) and a closer view on the bottom. There's a level editor and that's it for frills.

Even though this was one of those Apple ][ games I played the snot out of, it's still fun and still kinda hard. Probably not coming to America and maybe not worth the import price (I really don't know what Play-Asia would charge for this. I think it cost 3800 yen.) Still, if you're interested, there's not a lot of Japanese in it, so it's an easy pick up.

(And this is one of the things I love about Kristen. While I'm looking at console games, she picks this up and walks over and is like "this looks like something you would like." Excellent score babe. Right on the money.)

Another Kristen find was Eddie Costa's "Guys and Dolls Like Vibes." I was in the vibes section of the CD store (Japanese jazz stores arrange according to instrument, FYI) and she pulled this one out, attracted by the "jazz versions of showtunes" aspect. I was a little hesitant, it was showtunes and on Coral, not a jazz label by any yardstick. But she flipped it over and said "look! Bill Evans!" and I was sold. (I'm getting her trained well.) Plus it was a nifty mini-LP sleeve, and I'm a sucker for those.

Anyway, it's really good. I forgot I had some Eddie Costa on my iPod already and I love vibe players, so why not? Yes, it's a little on the light side, but Costa and Evans have some nice chemistry. It's also interesting to hear Bill Evans in this time period (1958) where he was playing with Miles and still finding the style that would make him THE Bill Evans.

Then there's this Les De Merle CD "Spectrum." OK, it's dated (they do "Aquarius" from Hair) but it's enjoyable in it's own way. Kind of reminds me of Buddy Rich Big Band records from the same time period. And there's no denying dude has some serious drum chops, like the afforementioned Mr. Rich.

(At this point, we were pulling into station.)

Sly & The Family Stone - The Collection

OK, this is going to be a quick review here of the new Sly & the Family Stone set from Legacy. This isn't really a box set as much as it is all seven of the recently remastered Family Stone albums boxed and sold at a cheap price (I got mine for $50.) These discs are all available separately, though I'd suggest springing for the whole set. There's at least four solid classic albums in there and the other three aren't that bad either.

While people constantly crab about how the Beatles catalog needs freshening up, it still amazes me at how shabby other acts of the era have fared on CD. At least you can get all the Beatles albums on CD and they have a semi-respectable replica of the original artwork. Small Talk was only available on CD in Japan until this reissue series and the covers for There's A Riot Goin' On and Dance to the Music were butchered horribly. And the sound, well, I don't even think it was near state of the art when these discs were first released.

These new issues restore all the art work in a digipack and feature spiffy new mastering jobs. I'm sorry they didn't go the hybrid SACD route like they did with the recent Bob Dylan set, but these things sound excellent. Though I still haven't combed over everything with a fine tooth comb, I can't find anything really to complain about there.

However, I do have one major beef. Legacy has thrown on a handful of bonus tracks and 45 mixes, all of which are appreciated. What I don't understand is why they couldn't have thrown on the three crucial single only tracks recorded between Stand! and Riot. It really aggravates me that I'm still going to have to buy a hits collection to have "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)," "Everybody Is a Star" and "Hot Fun in the Summertime," easily three of the band's best tracks. There was plenty of room to include them and no reason not to (except the desire to make fans shell out for one more disc.)

The other thing I'd like to see is the couple of non-Family Stone Epic albums finally get a CD reissue (though I've heard they aren't very good) and, just to be complete, how about the ahead of it's time remix album Ten Years Too Soon? Still, thanks Legacy for finally doing Sly & the Family Stone Right. This is some essential music, highly recommended.

Yet another Grindhouse review.

Because this is one of those films that really seems to have people divided and is inspiring a lot of passion in movie nerds, I feel I should kind of break down where I'm coming from before I get into Grindhouse. First off, if you just stumbled in here, I am certainly a fan of the grindhouse cinema. I get and appreciate where this is coming from.

I'm fairly neutral on Tarantino and have no opinion on Rodriguez. I also went into this movie as blind as possible. I purposely didn't watch trailers, read up on the hype, etc.

With that out of the way, let's start.

Part One: Planet Terror. The government has created some sort of green mist that is turning people into pus filled zombies and a paramilitary group is after it. A mysterious guy fights with the hard nosed local law to save the world. His stripper girlfriend finds her true self in all the chaos.

Sound familiar? It should.

Planet Terror's story is appropriately convoluted and it almost all comes together in the end. Still, the story is secondary to the action, and Planet Terror is almost wall to wall action. By the end, it's obvious Rodriguez has kind of painted himself into a corner, but it really doesn't matter. If I had a dollar for every genre picture I've seen with a burn out ending, I'd be filming one of my own.

The one thing that seems to really have gotten the film nerds up in arms about Planet Terror is the use of CGI. Despite the artificial aging, this is obviously a modern film and I don't really think they were trying to hide that fact.

Imagine if Cannon Pictures invented a time machine, zoomed from 1982 to now, brought back some CGI technology (and a bit of 2007 budget,) gave it to Cozzi or Fulchi and told them to go nuts. Part homage, part parody, Planet Terror is every over the top 80s action/zombie gross out/horror flick you've seen refashioned for today.

It's silly, it's gory, it's loud and all action. Yes, Rose McGowan with a machine gun for a leg is ridiculous, but it's supposed to be. So many of these films were ridiculous.

Planet Terror was huge fun and exactly what I expected from Grindhouse.



Part Two: Death Proof. Where to start? I know what Tarantino was going for. I know he loved all the old AIP/Crown car pictures. How do I know that? Because the characters in Death Proof make explicit* reference to such genre classics as Vanishing Point and Gone In 60 Seconds (the original) when they aren't gabbing on and on about sex.

There's also an element of the rape revenge film, though there's no sex at all here. In fact, it's really difficult for me to understand what Kurt Russell's heavy Stuntman Mike was after here, because there was zero character development for him. All we know about him is he stalks these girls, kills them with his car and then breaks down like a little baby instantly when the table is turned.

And it's not just Stuntman Mike who is underdeveloped. In between a couple of rather uninteresting car chase scenes, there's talking, lots of talking that never really advances the plot or the characters. None of the characters really amounts to much, despite all the gabbing they do. Never once do you develop any interest in them and personally, I kept hoping Mike was going to manage to off the chicks in the end after all. Considering Quentin is trying to make this a character driven film, allowing the character to grate as they do is a big misstep.

If Quentin was trying to duplicate the tedium of some of these genre pictures, mission accomplished. However, I think true grindhouse audiences wouldn't have had the patience for this one. It's like when Death Proof is not trying to be a car chase/female empowerment film, Death Proof becomes some film school version of French New Wave and it just doesn't work.

So maybe I don't get Death Proof, but what I saw was a boring mess of a film. How Tarantino managed to make a film with hot chicks talking about sex, car chases and Kurt Russell dull, I don't know, but he did it. I'll say this, if you love that famous "Tarantino dialogue", you're going to adore this film because that's about all there is to it.

Bonus features: The fake trailers are pretty good. Thanksgiving and Don't are brilliant. I expected a little more from Rob Zombie's take on the Ilsa/Olga naziplotation genre though.

So, in the end I'd pass on the same advice I got going into this: you can safely leave after the trailer for Thanksgiving and feel like you got your money's worth. You really won't be missing much.

* I half expected the film to stop and Quentin come out and explain "Ok, in the next scene, I'm referring to..." It was almost insulting the way the character come right out and tell the audience what films Tarintion is paying homage to.

Godfather: The Game PS2 Review

Officially the first game I've finished in 2007. Whoo hoo.

Yes, I know I'm late to the party on this one. After hearing about the upcoming PS3 and Wii ports, I almost wish I'd waited a little longer still, but I managed to find the Limited Edition cheap and a friend had just been raving about it, so whatever.

Anyway, when I'd heard EA was making a Godfather game, I was skeptical but interested. Movie games have a well deserved bad reputation and this isn't just the latest Vin Diesel vehicle we're talking about here. This is one of the greatest American films of all time. As details were revealed that showed the game as another in the long line Grand Theft Auto clones, it didn't do much to make me feel any better.

I'm pleased to say, Godfather is better than the average GTA knock off, but, at least in it's PS2 incarnation, it falls short of being a truly great game. While the game is free roaming, you are still tied to the story arc to advance. The story follows the movie with you as a rising member of the family. Some events are rewritten so you are involved, other things you learn about through cut scenes.

One quirk is a few major events in the Godfather's story line are mentioned by NPCs almost in passing. Like Vito's death, for instance. It's going to help if you're familiar with the movie first, because it's almost like they assume you know the story going into this game.

Aside from the story parts, you get to extort businesses and perform hits. Extorting businesses is pretty fun. Each shop owner has a level you can push them to where they will turn over protection money and if you push them farther, they'll fight back. Finding that balance is fun, but as you level up it becomes less and less of a chalange so by the end businesses just fold when you walk in.

The hits are kind of fun too as they always have a condition for bonus points and "respect". (Your respect meter is what allows you to level up.) For instance, you might have to kill a guy but you have to shoot him in the kneecap, shoulder and chin, in that order.

Other than that, you have to take over the rival family's warehouses, distribution hubs and compounds. Frankly, these missions get a little repetitious and are not helped at all by the fact that there's only a handful of building layouts. Once you get in a place, you know pretty much where everything is as you've seen it before.

And that's the Godfather's biggest flaw. Not only are the graphics kind of bland, there's not much variety in what you see. There's only five different vehicles, maybe a dozen (probably less) different buildings you go in, a lot of NPCs that look and sound the same, etc., etc. It just feels like this game needs a little more polish as these things feel a little rushed.

I also got really tired of driving everywhere. There's a lot of "meet X way up north, then go all the way over east, then down south" kind of stuff. It gets a little annoying after a while that you spend so much time in a car when the driving itself is rather boring.

Now, I'd say if you are a fan of the movie, it's worth playing, but I'd probably wait for a next-gen rev. Already the Xbox360 has more missions and (I think) the ability to recruit people to fight with you and supposedly has more of the polish the PS2 version needs. Additionally, the Wii and PS3 versions are supposed to use the motion sensing capacities of those system's controllers for the hand-to-hand combat (which I didn't mention but is kind of fun, even though it's not too far removed from button mashing.)

While Godfather the Game on PS2 isn't a total wash, it's hard not to think a movie this classic deserved a game equally so and this, unfortunately, isn't it. While it's going to be a fun diversion for fans of the movie and people wanting to play something until GTA 4 drops, unless the upcoming ports are amazing, this is an offer you can refuse*.





*(And I promised myself I wouldn't use that line...I am so ashamed.)