Ozark Savage

Rating:
Summary: Destined to be a Cult Classic
Review: If you enjoyed Army of Darkness and the Raimi brothers in general, you will be deeply pleased with this film. It proves that low-budget can be original, smart and very, very funny.

Dave Wilson does a great job as Lens Ozark, a red-headed, lollipop-sucking hit man who finds an ancient coin that is the deed to the ownership of Hong Kong. It also happens to contain the soul of an ancient sorceress who is involved in a feud with a demon that has spanned hundreds of years. The demon's latest incarnation is organized crime boss Makeel (Elliott Grey), who is determined to get his hands on the coin, Hong Kong, and his enemy's soul.

As entertainingly as the actors portray their roles, the biggest star of the movie ends up being writer/director Matt Steinauer, who combines verbal and visual storytelling to hilarious effect and manages to raise the sight gag genre to a higher level. Steinauer also works around a low budget with hugely entertaining results -- look for a great depiction of hell and enjoy the cheesy-but-somehow-perfect supernatural displays of power by the sorceress Desha and the demon Makeel -- proving that you don't need big bucks to make an outstanding film.

Reviewer David Cornelius describes Steinaeur's style as influenced by, "John Woo and Quentin Tarantino to Sam Raimi and, well, just about every cheesy B movie ever made", and was likewise favorably impressed with the results.

If you only get drunk and watch one B movie this year, it should definitely be Ozark Savage.

Rating:
Summary: I Don't See It
Review: Sorry to have to wreck the ratings curve, but I thought this movie totally stunk. I love Raimi's work and Bruce Campbell is nearly my idol, so I was horrified to hear their names being thrown around in relation to this awful mess. This is nothing at all like a Raimi film. To call the writing a heaping mound of poo would be a disservice to heaping mounds of poo the world over. The jokes are moronic and flat with no sense of timing, the story is incoherent and goes nowhere the entire movie. the "cues" that flash across the screne are insulting and worthless. Although, to be fair, by the time they actually got to some of the "pay-offs", I almost did need a refresher as to what had happened earlier because I had stopped caring enough to remember.

If your idea of a good indie film is cheap and flat acting, horrid writing, stupid and sorry attempts at humor, etc...then by all means, check this movie out. It might fill some niche that I can't imagine and if it does, then good for it. I'd recommend renting it first though.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful...better than Cats.
Review: This was very obviously a no budget film(video?) and it was a bit slow in spots, but it had some clever scenes and dialogue. Dave Wilson (Lens Ozark) steals the show and keeps the movie entertaining. If you like Troma movies you'll like this. Lens Ozark the new Ash? Not quite yet, but heck, Raimi had three at-bats to turn Campbell into the cult legend he is today. Let's have another Ozark film!