Tuesday, April 19, 2016

BLUE SUNSHINE (1978)

Uhhhh, yeah.  I didn't care for this movie.  The story - random people who took a special type of LSD (Blue Sunshine) 10 years ago are now suddenly losing their hair before going on a murderous rampage - is a great idea for a film, but the execution is boring.

A dude is chilling at a party when another dude goes all Party Pooper level 1,000 and starts stuffing people into the fireplace.  Needless to say, the party is over and the original dude ends up fighting the other guy to the death and then running away.  Now on the run and blamed for four brutal murders, he starts investigating exactly why that dude suddenly went bonkers.  (If the police really wanted to catch him all they would have to do is tail his girlfriend, because he's constantly meeting her and another doctor friend of his.)  Anyway, the dude eventually learns about the LSD and how it's connected to a up-and-coming politician who used to be a drug dealer.  In my head, I was thinking the finale of the film would be the politician going ape shit during a big campaign rally and yanking off his hair on live TV before killing people in front of the whole world, but...no.  Instead, the real ending is so anti-climactic that I was actually surprised that that really was The End!  It was laughable.

Anyway, BLUE SUNSHINE is a interesting time capsule into late-70's low-budget horror, but honestly it was pretty boring. I'd love to see a violent and demented as fook remake. Somebody give me some cash and I'll write it.

SPLASH (1984)

Forrest Gump is knocked unconscious when he falls off a boat near Cape Cod and he would have drown if he hadn't been saved by a mermaid (Daryl Hannah) who falls in love with him.  Stuff happens and the mermaid follows him back to New York City.  They hook up (she can somehow magically grow legs when she's out of the water) and then all kinds of "only in the movies" problem arise simply because she refuses to tell him she's a part-time mermaid.  Stuff like a mermaid obsessed scientist (Eugene Levy) stalking them, the government getting involved, her hiding from the rain, him being confused as fuck all the time, etc.  Also, at one point he illegally parks directly in front of a police station and doesn't get murdered by the police.  Totally unbelievable.

This was my first time seeing SPLASH and I'm kinda confused as to why it made so much money in the theaters back in 1984.  It's a okay film, but nothing special.  Yet somehow it made three million more than THE TERMINATOR and THE LAST STARFIGHTER combined!!!  It was the #10 money maker for the year!  I guess it was a good date movie or some of it could be attributed the desperate nerds wanting to wack off to Daryl Hannah's ass. Who knows. I've never been a part of normal human society so maybe something in this film was lost on me.

Mediocre story, average acting, no real laugh out loud moments only a few chuckles, John Candy in a few scenes not doing much, Ron Howard's dad, Ron Howard's brother, cool NYC street scenes including (in the highlight of the movie) an awesome looking theater showing a double-feature of THE EVIL DEAD and XTRO playing right next to a porno theater(?) showing films called THE MISTRESS, SWEET CHEEKS and SKINTIGHT...not even sure if those are real movies.