A group of friends from San Francisco head out to the backwoods of California for a weekend getaway. They soon end up in an adventure featuring crazy rednecks, a machete-wielding hippie, and a cult of women who worship a three-thousand pound black boar that roams the woods. Gruesome and comedic at times, it was a fairly entertaining film.
First off, I must mention the two taglines for the film. One is “Pieces…It’s exactly what you think it is.” The other is “You don’t have to go to Texas for a chainsaw massacre.” Fun times. Anyway, Pieces is a sleazy, early-80’s slasher film that starts off with a boy playing with a jigsaw puzzle of a nude woman. The boy’s mother walks in and takes the puzzle away from him. He responds by cutting her up with an axe. Cut to 40 years later, the boy is now killing women at a Boston university, all while cutting off and taking pieces of them. It turns out he is putting together a real-life jigsaw puzzle out of women’s body parts. There’s certainly no lack of blood in this film. Also, the ending is one of the most ridiculous and unforgettable endings ever, all while not having any true relevance.
It is always fun to watch an actor play a fictional version of themselves. The role is often a caricature of themselves, and most of the time for comedic purposes. Some of my favorites include Wil Wheaton on Big Bang Theory, Bruce Campbell in My Name Is Bruce, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Neil Patrick Harris in the Harold and Kumar films and John Malkovich in Being John Malkovich. There is one instance at least where an actor plays himself in a dramatic role, and that case is Jean-Claude Van Damme in JCVD. In this film, JCVD is an aging action star who is having trouble financially and with his family. He ends up as a hostage in a bank robbery, but the robbers use him in such a way that the police outside think JCVD is robbing the bank. The film is sort of a self-reflection for JCVD and shows the reality of how action heroes can be mortal and broken in real life. Much of the film is in French, JCVD’s native language, and takes place in Belgium. Check this out if you are a Van Damme fan and also to see a unique art-house film displaying Van Damme’s finest acting.
I had high expectations for this film. The trailer made it look very fun and whimsical with a touch of darkness, but I didn’t feel as satisfied as I’d hoped. I Sell The Dead stars Dominic Monaghan (Lord of the Rings, Lost) as an 18th grave robber who was captured and has been sentenced to the guillotine. The film takes place the night before his sentenced death, and he is telling his stories to a clergyman played by Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Sons of Anarchy). His graverobbing stories talk about strange things like undead corpses and run-ins with some crazy people. I did enjoy the movie, the only reason it ranks this low is due to my expectations not being met.
A Canadian slacker-comedy about two guys (Wes Bentley and Scott Speedman) who have a crazy night after one of their girlfriends overdoses and they try to bury her in the basement of a drive-in theater where a satanic cult is practicing demonic rituals. On top of that, the girl isn’t actually dead, they owe several thousand dollars to some drug dealers, they must run from both the drug dealers and satanic cult and they get a little help from some midget medieval knights.