petronia

Machine Girl [trailer]: I like Christgau's patented(?) album review system because it has ratings that mean "if you normally dig this kind of thing you will find it awesome/good/fair," which is not the same as saying "this is awesome/good/fair to me." ^^; Thus: if you normally dig evil ninja yakuza, softcore schoolgirl exploitation, and pressurized jets of red food colouring, this movie is recognizably good-going-on-awesome. "Dig" in the Western audience sense means "laugh uproariously at the cheese factor" though I have an uncomfortable intimation that the spraying fake blood is really supposed to be taken as a sexual signifier.

[rec] [trailer]: this is a zombie movie. XD Spanish, a must-see in the original, quality of American remake to be determined. The premise is that a TV journalist and cameraman are doing a piece on firemen working the night shift, and accompany them on a call to an apartment building where the residents had heard an old woman screaming. They break down her door and try to take her to hospital, upon which everything rapidly goes to hell in a handbasket.** The handheld cinéma verité concept's been done, so the brilliance lies entirely with the execution. The entire screening room screamed once or twice, and Fantasia crowds are a hardened lot.

** People in horror movies always have underdeveloped senses of paranoia: if health inspectors had sealed off the building with Rincewind still in it while asking him to remain calm with megaphones, he'd've looked for a sewer grate immediately, not two hours down the line.