Boat Trip (2002)

Why doesn’t this turd have the words National Lampoon in its title? What sort of incriminating photos did the producers have of Cuba Gooding Jr.? Can the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rescind the awarding of Oscars? And most importantly, why did I have to see if this really as bad as everyone says it is? Because it’s worse.

Any movie in which a character lip-synchs and dances to James Brown’s “I Feel Good” should be thrown in cinematic jail for life, but Boat Trip keeps piling on offenses, like doing a Chariots of Fire parody (those ceased being funny in 1983), giving Saturday Night Live’s Horatio Sanz a starring role, having Cuba dry-hump a porthole until he jizzes on a guy’s face, and having Roger Moore suggestively lick weenies, among other things.

The story (with apologies to the word “story”) has Gooding brokenhearted after his girlfriend (Vivica A. Fox) dumps him when he barfs on her cleavage and proposes marriage. To cheer him up, his ultra-horny janitor pal Sanz convinces him to accompany him on a cruise to engage in lots of promiscuous sex with loose women. But unbeknownst to them, a vengeful travel agent (Will Ferrell, whose cameo is the film’s only saving grace, outside of Victoria Silvstedt’s purple panties) books them on an all-male, all-gay ship. Let the homophobia ensue!

The initially disgusted Sanz thinks the trip might be okay after all when he accidentally shoots down a Swedish bikini team’s helicopter with a flare gun and they must board, enabling them to suntan and do jumping jacks topless. Gooding, meanwhile, falls for the ship’s dance instructor, Rush Hour 2 hottie Roselyn Sanchez — who does things to a banana here that presumably killed her career — but he can’t reveal to her that he’s not a homosexual.

Despite all the cheap shots, the film actually does carry a “being gay is just fine” message, but I doubt very many could make it that far. Its humor is absolutely infantile, and the look suggests a cheap, made-for-cable comedy that wouldn’t get watched without gratuitous nudity. —Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

Beyond Re-Animator (2003)

H.P. Lovecraft’s demented Dr. Herbert West made a third house call with the long-overdue Beyond Re-Animator, a sequel that’s a garish, gory and good-humored (although definitely not good-natured) good time. Jeffrey Combs returns as West, now imprisoned in the Arkham State Penitentiary after one of his living dead experiments escapes from Miskatonic Asylum for some milk and kills a young woman. Thirteen years later, that girl’s little brother — who witnessed her gruesome demise — is the prison’s new doctor, and he’s brought West a present: a syringe full of that familiar glowing green goo.

The doc (likable but goofy Jason Barry of MirrorMask) wants to use the serum to find ways to help people; West, however, just seems interested in continuing his freakathon, although he has developed a method for restoring life, thanks to some secret research with rodents. At first, they inject a prisoner here, a smokin’-hot Spanish reporter (Elsa Pataky, Fast Five) there, but the second half of the film is an all-out prison riot with electrocutions, hangings, exploding stomachs and a wrestling half-torso, courtesy of the unique talents of Screaming Mad George.

I’ll admit I harbored strong reservations about Beyond; the fact that it was shot in Spain, set in a prison, scripted by a first-timer and had no principals return except Combs combined to portend an idea whose time had long passed. Plus, director Brian Yuzna’s spotty filmography — Faust: Love of the Damned, anyone? I thought not — didn’t bode well, either. To my relief, Beyond is a solid third chapter in a B-movie franchise of Grand Guignol that has a lot of life left in it, reanimated or otherwise.

If you thought that all the Re-Animator trilogy lacked were a techno-dance theme, you’ll thrill to the disc’s unintentionally hilarious Dr. Re-Animator music video for “Move Your Dead Bones” (sample lyric: “Reanimate your feet!”). And don’t you dare switch the movie off before the closing credits, lest you want to miss the fight between the rat and the penis. —Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

Video Wars (1984)

Video Wars is so obscure that, 27 years after its release — in a rented room at the Holiday Inn, I’m guessing — it didn’t even exist, according to its absence from the Internet Movie Database. Trust me: It was for the best.

The globe is being brainwashed by one Prince Radolpho … Rapemonger? Rightmonger? (The audio is horrible, so I can’t tell what the fat villain’s last name is.) Anyway, his aim is to control the destiny of anyone anywhere in the world, and requires a trillion-dollar annual allowance from America. To combat this scourge, the U.S. government has a plan that’s “too secret, too sensitive, too everything … we’ll have to field a special team.”

That’s comprised mostly of one guy (George Diamond) who looks like Joe Mantegna’s second cousin. He’s trained in “subversive activities” and must find Prince Radolpho’s computer terminal. To do this, he’s given some gadgets that look assembled from various cast-off parts in Radio Shack’s bargain bin. This film’s Q rattles them off: “a rotational axis with combined sensor … and last but not least, your acid pen.” Replies our hero, “I hope it doesn’t leak in my pocket!”

This leads to a gaggle of Russian female agents, many of whom are real hatchet-faces; multiple aerobics sequences; a snowman with spy-camera eyes; a chase on snowmobiles; and the can’t-miss pick-up line “You like chicken, baby? Well grab a wing.” Take none of this as a recommendation. This no-budget spy comedy is worse than an eye stab.

The whole video game element is pure gimmick, having very little to do with the actual movie. Early on, there’s a scene in which a room full of businessmen are playing a game, and they’re taking to the joysticks as if they’re masturbating. And toward the end, there’s an arcade contest where, judging by the screens shown, the object is to look at 8-bit patterns of random-size squares. That’s about it. Do not insert coin to continue. —Rod Lott

They Call Her One Eye (1974)

Whether you call it Thriller: A Cruel Picture, Hooker’s Revenge or They Call Her One-Eye, there’s no doubt that this Swedish grindhouse/arthouse mélange of awful/awesomeness is the most hardcore rape/revenge picture ever made — both figuratively and literally. Written and directed by Bo Arne Vibenius, the film stars European softcore icon Christina Lindberg as Frigga (in the original Swedish version; Madeleine in the dubbed version), a young country girl whose personal trials would have the Bible’s Job shaking his head with teary-eyed sympathy.

Rendered permanently mute following a childhood rape, the now adult Frigga is on her way to visit her doctor in the city when she’s picked up by a suave, sophisticated gentleman who promptly drugs her unconscious and proceeds to inject pure heroin into her veins. After spending weeks in a druggy haze, she’s informed that her body is now so dependent on horse, she’ll die without a daily dose, which she’ll — naturally — have to fuck strangers for money to receive. To make her terrible situation even worse, her pimp forges a letter to her devoted parents claiming she never wants to see them again, which they promptly respond to by committing suicide!

Frigga quickly learns the consequences of rebellion when her pimp punishes her by plunging a scalpel into her right eye (earning her both the nickname described in one the film’s alternate titles and a reason to sport a series of stylish patches). Instead of breaking her spirit, however, this only inspires her to secretly charge her “clients” extra to do the really dirty shit (which, by today’s Internet porn standards, admittedly doesn’t seem so bad) and use the cash to buy her own drugs, and train with experts in the fine arts of ass-kicking until she’s ready to proclaim her independence and properly exhibit her (extremely justified) dissatisfaction.

Clinical and unrelentingly brutal (Vibenius used an actual cadaver for the eyeball sequence and inserted grimy, XXX-penetration shots featuring a distinctly “brown-eyed” Lindberg body double to graphically highlight Frigga’s degradation), They Call Her One-Eye is less successful as an action movie than as a soberly Scandinavian depiction of man’s inhumanity to (wo)man. Spared the potential indignity of dialogue, Lindberg’s performance is more appropriately enigmatic than unfortunately wooden and the film benefits greatly from her impressive physical presence (which is covered throughout by costumes Tarantino lifted directly for Darryl Hannah in Kill Bill).

Not for the squeamish, politically correct or anyone frightened by foreign sensibilities, They Call Her One-Eye remains an utterly unique cinematic achievement no matter what its title. —Allan Mott

Buy it at Amazon.

The Initiation (1984)

An attractive, young coed from a wealthy family is left with partial amnesia after suffering through a traumatic incident everyone around her prefers to pretend never happened. A kindly psychologist attempts to help her recover her lost memories, while she deals with the perils of fitting in with her school’s most popular clique. But when people start dying around her, it becomes obvious that either she’s completely crazy or has a psychotic doppelgänger she doesn’t know about.

Sound familiar? It should if you’ve ever seen the 1981 slasher classic Happy Birthday to Me, but — as you’ve already guessed — I’m actually describing The Initiation, which was made three years later and shares virtually the exact same plot.

Based on my fondness for HB2M (which I would happily list among my top five slashers), you’d think this would cause me to dismiss The Initiation as an unworthy copycat, but it’s actually a pretty decent flick, despite its lack of originality. The principal reason: a script that takes pains to develop real, likable characters who we sympathize with, which makes it something of a revelation in a genre where it’s normal for everyone other than the lone female protagonist to be an asshole who needs to die.

As the heroine, Daphne Zuniga (who gets an “introducing” credit, despite her appearance as a human speed bump in the awful The Dorm That Dripped Blood two years earlier) nearly makes you forget Melissa Sue Anderson, but your heart will ultimately belong to Marilyn Kagen and Trey Stroud, whose sweet, shopping-mall intimacy dooms them while simultaneously allowing them to transcend their clichéd roles of uptight prude and practical joker.

While not quite an unrecognized classic, The Initiation is still a far better film than it has any right to be. Just make sure you check out Happy Birthday to Me first. —Allan Mott

Buy it at Amazon.

Random Genre & Cult Movie Reviews