Author: BRWC

We’ve all been there. Sat in a pub/taverna/steam room with your friends. A few drinks have been swilled down. You turn to the important business of the day. Who? Oh who would win in a wrestling match between a werewolf and Frankenstein’s Monster. It’s an ageless debate that Monster Brawl has deemed itself worthy to try and answer for us through scientific means.

Not so much a narrative film in the traditional sense Monster Brawl plays out like a WWE pay-per-view, albeit set in a graveyard. As you may be able to guess the tone is extremely tongue-in-cheek. Legendary wrestling manager Jimmy Hart pops up now and then to interview and shout in high pitched voice about which monster has just beaten which monster. Kevin Nash (known famously as Diesel in my day) plays a crazed US military type who has created zombies and Dave Foley, who’s biggest role was providing the voice of Flick in ‘A Bug’s Life’ plays an alcoholic announcer. A touch of class is provided by Lance Henriksen’s gravelly, yet silky tones as ‘God’ – who in this case is relegated to be a ring announcer, you’d have thunk God would have better stuff to do.

The set up’s all there. It’s silly, it knows it’s silly. There’s even a crazy crypt keeper who warns “you’re all gonna die” but ultimately Monster Brawl ends up feeling like a wasted opportunity. You come away feeling as though you’ve just watched crap as opposed to “entertaining” crap. The problem comes essentially from the premise. It’s a great set up. Get the most famous monsters of legend and pop culture in a punch up. You get The Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster, A Zombie. But then you have such other legendary ghouls as “Lady Vampire”, “Witch Bitch” and “Swamp Gut”. It might sound like I’m picking a bit too much but it feels that the idea barrel has been scraped by the filmmakers before the film has even started. A notion that’s not helped by the way the film simply ends, in what is probably supposed to be some kind of meta joke but comes across as a cheap way out.

Even though the film is played for laughs, it’s not actually very funny. Relying too much again on the premise to carry the humour director Jesse T. Cook leaves the rest of comedy to come from people mugging to camera and goofy sound effects. The funniest moment perhaps being the film’s most misanthropic. As Frankenstein’s Monster approaches the ring (in this film the creature is referred to as simply Frankenstein) a voice over not heard before, probably Jesse T. Cook’s announces “yeah we know it’s technically Frankenstein’s Monster but anyone worrying about that is a dick”. I was wondering about that and I feel appropriately like a dick thanks Monster Brawl. The final thing to note is that although we spend the best part of 90 minutes watching monsters wrestling none of the fights are interesting or exciting in anyway. It’s like watching Celebrity Deathmatch but without the imagination or gore.

Monster Brawl is a film I genuinely wanted to like but when it promises such sweet things and only delivers blandness it makes it all the more disappointing. One to perhaps watch with a group of friends with a bit of wrestling nostalgia otherwise watch Cloudy With Chance of Meatballs. Not that’s related at all I just like it.

This summer see’s Titan books releasing a series of titles on popular musicians and bands, the first two of which to be reviewed by us are a stunning pair of photo books looking at The Who and Pink Floyd respectively, edited by Marcus Hearn. These large hardcover books feature hundreds of images from each band, charting their progress from beginning up to recent reunions and performances.

The Who, charts the progress of the band from their beginnings in 1964, through early performances, into the 1970’s and 80’s right up until their reunions in the late 1990’s and 2000’s, ending with 2005’s Live 8 performance. The majority of the images, though, are from the 60’s and 70’s era, before the tragic overdose and death of Keith Moon in 1978. For any fan of The Who this book will be a fantastic resource, showing a slew of shots of the band from early pub gigs, staged photo shoots, larger live performances, video shoots and charting the complete career of one of the greatest rock bands of all time. Anyone interested in band photography will also be equally interested in the mix of live/studio/candid shots as they depict a wide range of styles and times as only a massive band like The Who can have lived through.

Similar to The Who, and again edited by Marcus Hearn is the Pink Floyd photo book, again presented in the same large hardcover treatment with a minimal text accompaniment to lend context to the images. Pink Floyd the band, like The Who, share a varied and long spanning career that involved stylistic and line-up changes ranging from the psychedelic experimental rock of the 60’s through the operatic and grandiose concept work of The Wall in the 1979 to more recent reconciliations and reunions. Similar to The Who, this book wades through the archives of images that exist of the band and depicts the full range of their career, notably this was probably easier for Pink Floyd who were always a bit more conspicuous with concept photo shoots and lavish stage productions.

Both of these books have trawled through and painstakingly restored original negatives, prints and archive images to provide a faithful and interesting image of both of these juggernauts of 20th Century rock history. The books will be massively appreciated by fans, and indeed anyone interested in music history or music/band photography.

The second two books to be reviewed by us come from Simon Sheridan and chronicle the careers, in prose rather than images, of ABBA and Kylie, two very big names from different generations of music history. The books take the chronological approach and document both artists from early beginnings and singles through albums and the varying heights of success. They are chocked full of information, in fact anyone who is not a die hard fan might be slightly overwhelmed by the amount of detail that is delved into, as well as some personal annotations from the author – who is clearly a bit of a Kylie fangirl in particular…

The Complete ABBA: A 40th Anniversary Celebration is a massive compendium of all their works – a discography of their singles and albums as well as their tours and a whole slew of information regarding the creation of their biggest works – as well as a look at the band and the personalities. Interspersed in with the factual and personal information are some photos that help to illustrate the very extensive amount of information. As with the photo books fans of ABBA will simply love this book as a resource to learn even more about the band that they love, perhaps lending new emphasis or shedding some enlightenment on the meaning or history of some of their songs/albums. This is the only one of the books on review that isn’t hardcover, but the softcover here doesn’t detract from the overall effect of the book which is to provide a frankly massive amount of information to enrich the music of one of the biggest pop bands of all time.

Similarly The Complete Kylie (updated edition) is a hardcover chronicle of the 25 year career of one of the best loved women in pop. As the back jacket states it’s “all the singles, all the albums, all the TV, all the movies, all the tours… all the Kylie.” It’s difficult to wonder what more any Kylie fan would want as this book really covers it all from her beginnings on Australian TV, Neighbours, and becoming a princess of pop through to her current massive world success, Sheridan details it all and with photos along the way. It is extensive, perhaps even too much for the average fan, this really is one for the slightly ‘obsessive’ fans that relish in all the varying particulars of a lengthy career. More so than the ABBA book this one reads in an informal, or even trashy, tone and Sheridan clearly has an almost ‘Heat magazine’ level of appreciation for popular culture. That being said the shear breadth of information available will satiate the die hard Kylie enthusiast.

For certain if you are a fan of any of the varied artists in the books above you will want to check out these publications as they really can enhance your appreciation, either visually or with an overwhelming amount of informative backstory, of the artist and their music careers.

All of the titles mentioned above are available through Titan books now. Also available in this series are The Complete Dusty Springfield and Matt Monro – The Singers Singer.

Mother’s Red Dress is the second film to come from duo writer/director Edgar Michael Bravo and producer John Paul Rice to feature a darkly themed, social issue storyline. Paul is a young man who witnesses his mother shooting and killing her boyfriend and it sets off a chain of events that force him to explore his murky past, and abusive relationship with his father.

Mother’s Red Dress is not always easy to watch, in fact some scenes are downright difficult (in part due to the subject matter, but occasionally due to pacing or acting choices), but the overall picture is compelling, if dark. Timothy Driscoll depicts Paul in a very quiet manner, almost underplaying the role, which is a plus for the complex and somewhat confused character whose home life and past trauma’s, that he doesn’t really remember, have had a measurable effect on his personality. Paul abruptly leaves home after witnessing the shooting, and almost as if in a daze he finds himself in some part of L.A., staying in a motel and inquiring at a local coffee shop about colleges.

This is where he meets Brenda (played by Amanda Reed) and closely after Ashley (Alexandra Swarens), Brenda is obviously initially interested in Paul but she gives up the instant Ashley turns up and it’s clear that Paul is more interested in her. Brenda’s character is almost as tragic as Paul’s, from being attacked by an abusive customer to her obvious attraction to Paul, self-loathing, and drinking problems, the viewer can’t help but feel a bit sorry for her – despite her sometimes highly obnoxious personality. Swaren’s and Reed do an admirable job filling the roles, but overall the acting is a little spotty with a preponderance of slowly delivered lines and pained looks meant to convey deepness of character. The stand out performance comes from Alisha Seaton as Paul’s mum Laura (wearer of the titular red dress) whose appearances on screen are always punctuated with violent emotion.

The main concern to raise against the film is the slowness with which is progresses, it’s definitely a slow thinking film rather than fast paced. The first half in particular is a bit of a slow haul. As the movie progresses, what is real and what has happened in regards to Paul, his mother, and his past, becomes less clear and then eventually resolves itself in the final act. The ‘big reveal’ and the ending are somewhat bleak, particularly for Paul, but the final moments try to pull it around into a hint of a positive ending. All in all Mother’s Red Dress is perhaps not the best film, it’s an indie movie whose complicated, if occasionally muddled, story of social issues builds a character study – it won’t be for everyone, but for those of you that enjoy cinema with an issue or element of realism then this will probably be worth checking out.

You can find out more about the film HERE, and it’s also available to watch VOD HERE.

Set in and around the sewers of Sydney ‘The Tunnel’ follows a group of journalists as they investigate the labyrinth beneath the city.

Borrowing styles from the ‘found footage’ genre, Carlo Ledesma’s film in many ways achieves a consistency and believability that other more Hollywood offerings, such as ‘Chronicle’, have failed to deliver. The fact that the characters are a film crew whose main source of light in the tunnels is the high powered torch mounted on their professional news camera allows you to forget the ‘why are they filming this?’ contradiction that can often take you out of theses sorts of films.

As for the characters they are the typical mixed bunch. The crusading female journalist Nat (Bel Deliá), her producer Pete (Andy Rodoreda, think of an Australian Michael Fassbender), cameraman Steve (Steve Davis) and sound recorder ‘Tangles’ (Luke Arnold) are all given a key part to play both in the narrative and, in the case of the crew members particularly, in the actual documentation of the events.

Starting off as a political news story surrounding an abandoned government project to use the sewers of Sydney as a water recycling plant, the film makes sure to set up a level of realism as conversations are captured on CCTV or used as ways of the crew checking their kit. The opening of the film also allows the characters and their relationships to take shape, and while this would usually involve the characters themselves interacting with each other (in the car on their way to the cabin, or abandoned town or wherever) the film also employs another technique in order to get to know the characters.

Interviews are cut to throughout the story and provide personal accounts from characters as the events unfold (in much the same way as ‘District 9’). While this does allow us further insight into the characters and what they think of each other, discerning viewers may find it spoils the film somewhat as things start to go wrong down in the sewers.

As for the horror aspects they are mostly played brilliantly. While there are no particularly gory images (save one or two) Ledesma cunningly employs the ‘Alien’ philosophy (its not what you see, its what you imagine thats scary) which is used to great effect in the often pitch black setting.

To give away the threat itself would ruin the suspense of a horror film like this but I will say there is one particular reveal that is so damn creepy the image is likely to stay with you for a while.

‘The Tunnel’ definitely a good watch for horror fans, but don’t be put off if this isn’t usually your sort of thing. With a well thought out premise, solid cast (with a particularly good performance from amiable Steve Davis, who is in fact a cameraman ‘giving acting a go’) and genuinely creepy horror, ‘The Tunnel’ is a great example of Australian independent film.