EXCISION (2012)

Kinda like the AMERICAN BEAUTY of gore and perversion (except for the fact AB is one of the greatest films ever and this film is only so-so), EXCISION tells the story of an outwardly normal upper-middle class suburban family that is actually all fucked up...especially the eldest teenage daughter, Pauline.  Pauline barely has any grasp on reality and spends most of her time fantasizing about gore and blood and a whole flock of other perversions.  Despite the fact that she is clearly off her rocker, she still attends normal classes and is even allowed to roam around without multiple armed guards in riot gear.

I'm not going to give away the story, but I really enjoyed the first two acts of EXCISION, especially the awesome fantasy scenes.  The last act, not so much, but that's just my personal feelings maybe you'll think it was great.  Personally I wish it had been done a little bit more dreamier.

I was impressed by the fact that not only did the filmmakers center this story around a female, but they were able to find one as beautiful and talented as AnnaLynne McCord to play the lead.  I knew she was talented from her brief stint on "Nip/Tuck", but she was truly impressive here and quite brave to be so uglied up for nearly the entire film.  Also, I was really impressed with Traci Lords acting in this film.

Not the greatest gore perversion film of all time or even in the Top 50, but still an fun ride filled with quite a few laughs.

THE FAR COUNTRY (1954)

When the film opens we find Stewart as a rough outdoorsman who's been running some cattle up to Alaska.  The law don't take too kindly to the fact that he had to kill two of his men who tried to run off with the cows.  Stuff happens and next thing you know Stewart and his partners (Walter Brennan and Jay C. Flippen) are in a remote gold mining town where the local crooked sheriff (John McIntire) ain't above just straight up killing people in cold blood in order to steal their gold.

Anthony Mann and Jimmy Stewart's fourth western collaboration might have had a great cast, but I didn't care too much for the story.  Stewart's character is too much of an asshole to root for and the action moved around too much.  One minute we're fighting the law, then the next digging gold, then there's an avalanche, then stealing some cows, shoot out in a bar, shoot out in the street.  Sounds exciting, but it was all too jumbled up for me.  Worth a watch since it's still a good movie, but not one that I'm going to be revisiting any time soon.

Mann - Stewart westerns:

WINCHESTER '73
BEND OF THE RIVER
THE NAKED SPUR
THE MAN FROM LARAMIE