Saturday, July 14, 2018

Miguel Marte's Violent Deaths.

Let’s face it, folks. We’re all going to die someday. Hopefully in very much old age & in natural causes—not violently and under strange circumstances. In 1990, awesome Mexican filmmaker Miguel Marte had thought about death and how it sometimes happens under violent & strange circumstances, so he then shot 3 stories for an anthology movie entitled Muertes Violentas (aka "Violent Deaths").




In the first Muerte Violenta, Manuel Flaco Ibáñez plays a criminal who’s just chilling in bed with a hooker and proposing his love for her. He also tells her a story about how he “had to” kill a close friend of his. All of a sudden the cops come to his house to arrest him, but he doesn’t surrender to them at all.. He fights them instead! He fires his guns at the cops and even has the girl with him unwillingly join on the gun-firing battle as well. Just when you think the battle is over, Manuel Flaco Ibáñez is in for a twisting surprise at the end!

This first Muerte Violenta was an interesting start. It’s just a typical crime/action story with a twist ending that was sort of unexpected and cheesy. It’s always interesting to see Manuel Flaco Ibáñez play serious roles since he’s actually a really good actor and not just in the comedic roles that he is mostly been in.


It’s always nice spending time with your dad. Especially if you’re pulling one of the weirdest pranks ever with him. Noe Murayama and his son are chilling in a van waiting for his girlfriend to come out of school so they can fake kidnap her and take her to a remote cabin in the woods for a nice little getaway. The getaway at first seems nice & chill, but things get intense & weird, and ultimately the girl ends up dead & chopped up into little pieces. Literally. 

This 2nd Muerte Violenta story is weird as fuck for sure. It begins with a weird prank and after much settling at the cabin getaway, the trio all seem to get along fine but tensions arise between all of them and then shit hits the fan hard! Still, as crazy & weird as this story was—I really liked it. Some good ol’ crazy father/son activities featuring a crazy girl who’s willingly to fuck any of them. 


The last story is about some South American mercenaries resting at an abandoned temple that turns out to be haunted by an unseen entity! The unseen entity possesses one of the mercenary men and goes on a little killing spree.

They saved the best Muerte Violenta story for last and I loved it! The makeup effects for the possessed mercenary is cheesy goodness and he even has live snakes coming out of his mouth. Snakes always appear when someone dies a bloody death and I’m not really sure why, but these slithering creatures sure added more madness & weirdness to this death story.


Muertes Violentas is a fun anthology flick. An anthology flick made by Miguel Marte at that. I love Miguel Marte movies and this one has of course become a favorite. Why I had this tape stored in my closet for so long without viewing it is beyond me, but I’m glad I gave it a watch finally. Muertes Violentas will not be ignored no more!

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

8.

Pit & his wild 90’s-looking motorcycle gang have arrived to his hometown in Mexico from all the way from Los Angeles. Pit has come back to claim everything that is supposed to be his. He feels this strong entitlement to everything because his father just so happens to be a local powerful politician, whom is away traveling all over Europe. What Pit wants more than just the entire town is a girl named Paola (Stephanie Salas). Paola was once his girlfriend but left her behind when he headed out to LA. Now that he’s back, he wants her again, but she’s with someone new and this guy is a good ol' med student named Efren (Ernesto Rivas). When Efren and Paola get married, they’re attacked and Paola is taken away by Pit’s gang and leave Efren to die in his truck. Efren luckily survives the attack and wants his beloved bride back. With the help of a local cop (Manuel Ojeda) who hates Pit and his family, Efren is trained to fight Pit and his gang.


8 Malditos (aka "The Damned Eight") plays out like something that would of been made in the late 60’s to early 70’s. There's a motorcycle gang, has excessive use of drugs & alcohol, is set in a small town, there's someone out for revenge, etc. That kind of stuff, ya know? Then of course our leading lady is held hostage by the gang and starts to become a part of them by drinking and listening to cheesy rock stock music. How groovy sounding, right? Yes!

Eduardo Yáñez playing Pit was perfect because I couldn’t see anyone else play such a complete dick of a bad guy. Eduardo knows how to play these kinds of characters perfectly! Pit is spoiled, privileged and thinks he’s cool because he rides a motorcycle and wears an ugly tasseled jacket. Pit’s gang are very interesting aesthetically. They wear ripped denim, wear chains & studded leather and one of the guys carries an old skateboard around and he's called "Snoopy". Pit’s 2nd in command of the gang is a girl called “Black” (played by Paola Santoni) and she is fine as hell. Fine as hell and pretty damn evil just as Pit is. She tells Pit a few times throughout the movie “what’s yours is also mine”. She clearly wants Paola for herself as well!


8 Malditos is a fun watch. I was lucky to catch it on TV a few years ago and was genuinely surprised by it. Sure it’s corny and not very well acted at times, but it’s fun overall with its colorful characters terrorizing a small Mexican town with their motorcycles, acts of violence and excessive use of drugs & alcohol. A fun watch for a lazy afternoon at home. 5/10.