Fantasia Festival 2020 Review - "FRIED BARRY" (2020)

Fried Barry (2020)
Written and directed by Ryan Kruger
Starring Gary Green, Chanelle de Jager, Brett Williams and Joey Cramer
Running time: 1 hour and 39 minutes
Currently unrated, but it contains copious drug use, sexual content, violence, adult themes and the birth of an alien/human hybrid

Director Ryan Kruger’s Fried Barry is A LOT. The story of a burned-out, deadbeat dad who’d rather spend his time in bars or shooting up than at home with his family. One afternoon he’s just up and abducted by aliens who possess his body and take it on a whirlwind tour of the city and its seedy underbelly. It’s entertaining and surprisingly well-acted, but ultimately really exhausting.

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Everything Old Is New Again

Vol. 18 - August 2020

by Hunter Bush

Howdy, howdy one and all. How's everybody doing? Dark lord but it is hot out! I dunno how things'll be where you are, or when this drops but as I'm writing it we are heading into the dog days of summer in Philly. Nevertheless I'm back hunched over my laptop, the click clack of my fingers on the keys battling the susurration of a fan and clink of ice cubes in my glass, all to bring YOU, dear reader, the latest installment of Everything Old is New Again!

"ELVIS FROM OUTER SPACE" (2020)

ELVIS FROM OUTER SPACE (2020)
Written and directed by: Marv Z Silverman and Tracy Wuischpard
Starring: Martin Kove, Alexander Butterfield and Frank Cavestani
Running time: 1 hour and 31 minutes
Unrated but contains: salty language, one very tame sex scene, mild violence, porno playing on a TV monitor and aliens that wouldn't stop looking at me!

"No Thank You. No Thank You, Very Much"
by Hunter Bush



How? How did I draw two films to review, back to back, that are so similar? In my most recent previous Moviejawn piece I wrote about Vampire Burt's Serenade, a film made from the bones of an earlier film, re-edited and re-released under a new name; an obvious passion project (what other explanation could there be?) made by someone with seemingly no understanding of the Hows and Whys of filmmaking. The same could be, must be and is right at this moment being said, by me, about Elvis From Outer Space.

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Everything Old is New Again,
Vol. 17 - July 2020

by Hunter Bush



How's everybody doing out there? States are reopening, businesses resuming in some feeble attempt at "normalcy" but I keep getting this sinking feeling... and maybe this is just me but, does anybody else keep feeling like we're in the middle of Jaws when the mayor (Murray Hamilton) refuses to close the beach in the middle of prime tourism season despite the warnings of experts? Ugh. Well, I hope wherever you are you're doing well and staying safe.

As for me, I'm back with your July installment of Everything Old Is New Again, my - now monthly - column where I attempt to keep y'all abreast of upcoming releases that fall under the EOINA purview: Remakes (a movie, but again), Adaptations (used to be a book, TV show, play or what have you but now it's a movie) and Long-Gap Sequels (the last one came out *how* long ago?) and things of that ilk.

Since no one in their right mind is going back to theaters right now, I'm sticking to what flicks and series' are coming to the various streaming services around. The downside of this set-up being that streaming services are kind of difficult to get reliable release dates and/or trailers from. But I did my best and, whenever possible, tried to give my overall impression of the type of movie or series we'll be getting. Appearances *can be* deceiving however, don't forget.

"VAMPIRE BURT'S SERENADE" (2020)

A Vampire Movie with No Stakes

Vampire Burt's Serenade 
Written and directed by Ken Roht
Starring Kevin Scott Richardson, Sharon Ferguson, Brandon Heitkamp, Diva Zappa
Running time: 1 hour 16 minutes
Unrated, but contains graphic language, toothless sexual content, obnoxious drug use, cartoonish violence and instances of mild monsterism.

by: Hunter Bush

When a vampire kills the MC of a popular strip club, the strippers set out to get revenge by surprising the vampire where he'd least expect it: picking up drugs from his dealer. That pretty-well sums up Vampire Burt's Serenade in a nutshell, though there is more than that going on. Much more. Some would say too much more. I am one of them.

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EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN
VOL. 16 - JUNE 2020

by: Hunter Bush

Welcome welcome, one and all. The quarantine persists and I would hope that if you're reading this, you are still social distancing and taking care of yourself. But - to paraphrase my jr. high sex ed teacher - just because you're playing it safe doesn't mean you can't have fun. And around here, fun means Movies! In EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN it specifically means the movies that are Remakes of older flicks, or Adaptations of some other work or even Long-Gap Sequels to some long ago film that someone was just dying to add to the legacy of.

Since the film world is currently light on premiers, I've expanded the scope of the column to include films meeting EOINA criteria coming to streaming services no matter when they were originally released. BUT, streaming services are notoriously difficult to track down release date info for so... basically I'm doing my best  here, y'all and many many thanks to Allison Yakulis, my partner-in-crime, for helping with the research here.

Without any further ado, let the Quarant-EOINA commence...

"DREAMLAND" (2020)

DREAMLAND (2020)

Written by Tony Burgess & Patrick Whistler
Directed by Bruce McDonald
Starring Juliette Lewis, Stephen Mchattie, Henry Rollins
Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes

by Hunter Bush

Dreamland takes place in a world that's like ours, and yet not. Characters drift through it at an lackadaisical pace that heightens the film's tension by seeming to ignore that there is tension at all, or they get carried along almost nonchalantly by events, like a particularly "chill af" leaf on a river of gangland violence. Choices are made that would make no sense in a world where logic mattered, while here in Dreamland they seem like the only option worth choosing. With a title like Dreamland is it any surprise that this film is, well... dreamlike?