KAMERADSCHAFT (1931)

[Update 01/31/2021: need to rewatch this film and update it. Also, need to delete the shitty screenshots from my old disc and replace with stuff from the Criterion release.] 

Even though this German/French production is loosely based on the famous 1906 Courrieres mine disaster in which 1,099 miners died, the film also reminded me a lot of Emile Zola's novel "Germinal".

The large mine in this film is divided by the border of Germany and France. They even have a brick wall underneath to mark the divide. Early one morning there's a massive explosion on the French side and an unknown number of miners are trapped or dying down in the rubble. After hearing this news, the German miners ignore all political and national differences and race across the border to help their fallen brothers. Some of the miners that are already in the pit on the German side break through the border wall to go help with the rescue efforts. 

The peace and love message of the film might be overly simplistic, but the technical aspect of this early sound film is very impressive. Especially the realism of the explosion and the misery the survivors went through.  Recommended.

FRIGHT NIGHT 2 (1988)

Life's been pretty swell for Charley Brewster in the three years since the original FRIGHT NIGHT. He's in college, he's still friends with Peter Vincent, he's got a cool PREDATOR poster, he's still got that cool 80's hair and best of all his new girlfriend is a gigantic improvement over that diseased sea donkey he was banging in the first movie. Yuck! Now for the bad news: the vampires are back and even worse is it's the sister of the dude he killed in part 1. Yikes!

Good sequel. I enjoyed it, but it lacks that certain something to make it an 80's vampire classic like the original or THE LOST BOYS. The wall climbing werewolf and the roller skating vampire did help though.

Fair amount of blood and ooze, hot girlfriend who never got even close to naked, not as much Roddy McDowall screen time as I had hoped for, split-second topless scene, the vampire gang was not scary at all, the "sexy" female vampire was in no way attractive, great 80's clothes. I think my biggest issue with FN2 is how obsessed Charley was with the vampire. I know it was vampire lust magik, but goddamn! His girlfriend was so much hotter than the lame-looking vampire.

Part 1 - Fright Night (1985)
Remake - Fright Night (2011)
Sequel to remake - Fight Night 2 (2013)

THE COLLECTOR (2009)

[Update 08/01/2022: Need re-watch this film and redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

A burglar breaks into jeweler's house to get his burgle on, but ends up discovering that the entire house has been set up with extremely elaborate traps to capture...uh, him, I guess? I never did really figure that part out. Anyway, so there's traps everywhere and he sneaks all over the house, back and forth, upstairs and downstairs for the entire movie. Logic and common sense are thrown right out the window, so just sit back and enjoy the silliness of it all. I watched it with some friends and we got a good laugh out of it.  Often when I see films like this I can't help but wonder how much people get paid to write it. There's no way this entire script took over just a few days to complete beginning to end.

Nice amount of blood, a little gore, minor tit shot, bad guy wasn't scary, over stylized lighting, completely unbelievable story. Like I said, it's good for a laugh, but there wasn't nothing in this film to make it stand out from the crowd.

Part 2 - The Collection (2012)