Pieces

Rating:
Summary: An absolutely perfect ending makes Pieces a gory classic
Review: Pieces is a movie you just have to love. On the surface, it looks like a laughably bad horror film relying on fairly graphic blood-letting for its appeal, a movie which gives us absolutely no character we can possibly like, not even the bad guy, and a film whose killer is easily identifiable early on. It is all of these things. Then you get to the ending, and suddenly the ghastly ordeal of sitting through ninety minutes of Pieces pays off with not just one but two dramatic moments guaranteed to make you laugh hysterically; before your very eyes, a bad movie transforms itself into a cult classic. This is powerful stuff indeed.

The trouble really starts forty years in the past when a little boy is quietly putting a puzzle together in his room, bothering no one at all. His mother comes in and goes ballistic, just because the puzzle happens to be one of a naked woman. Our future serial killer is rather upset about all this and decides to calm his mother down by chopping her up with an axe. You have to be impressed by the craftily evil potential of the kid, as he brilliantly sets himself up as horrible victim rather than sadistic mother-killer. His potential lies dormant for forty years, but eventually the nude woman puzzler lover in him reasserts itself. At his adult age, a cardboard puzzle just won't do. What he needs are real human pieces for his ultimate puzzle: a head, torso, arms, etc. Realizing that a college campus is a great place to meet girls, he sets out on a serial killing spree that leaves the local police department more and more dependent on an incredibly annoying student to crack the case. Young Kendall looks like a total dweeb to me, but the ladies seem to love him for some inexplicable reason. The police and college keep the murders hush hush somehow, although prudence would seem to dictate that you warn the public and have them on the lookout for a man carrying a chainsaw. I think the local police force could have used a little outside help on this one; the lead detective doesn't seem to do any real investigating, preferring to sit back and let young Kendall do his work for him. His assistant seems to exist just so the detective can keep asking him for a match for the unlit cigar he keeps in his mouth throughout the film.

There is a good bit of gore in Pieces; death by chainsaw can be pretty messy. For some reason, though, the excessive gore doesn't really have much shock value. A number of really weird plot points are thrown in at odd times, such as the kung fu fighter who shows up for no apparent reason and whose attack manages to leave his foe laughing. As I've said already, though, the ending of this film is what makes Pieces memorable. The movie ends with an unexpected, delightful little surprise, and then, to my initial disappointment, it keeps going. I thought the moviemakers were making a terrible mistake by not ending the movie when they should have, but I was soon surprised and thrilled by an even more unexpected and hilarious finish. Lovers of campy gory horror will get a big kick out of Pieces; it is a shining example of how to make a good "bad movie."

Rating:
Summary: Would rate it 3 1/2 stars if I could...
Review: PIECES is, despite it's cheesiness, a landmark film in the horror genre. It is, of course, something we've all seen before, but there is something at least remotely original about it all, which is definately a good thing. The reason I call it a landmark film, is because it is just like all the others, but with WORSE acting and dialogue! Despite what I say, the film's saving grace is Christopher George (CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, GRADUATION DAY) and his wife, Lynda Day George. It is just like any other film in the genre, except that it has a twist- kind of like FRANKENSTEIN and FRIDAY THE 13TH combined.

A killer, after brutally slaughtering his mother 40 years earlier, stalks a university campus- killing off beautiful girls and stealing body parts from them to create a human body puzzle! Christopher George is a cop investigating the case, and, as always, is great. Some of his lines are terrible, but that is not his fault, it is the writer's. Lynda portrays a tennis player who goes undercover at the university to find out who the killer is. There are plenty of brutal moments as you see a girl's body sawed in half; a woman stabbed in the neck, the knife protruding from her mouth, and a guy get his balls ripped off. It is gruesome, I must say, but it IS entertaining, you must admit, to watch all of this pure CHEESE in all it's glory.

I must admit, though, that the DVD (distributed by Diamond Entertainment, who released the horribly awful SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT [no relation to SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT; the killer Santa Claus horror film, this has nothing at all to do with it] with utterably horrid picture and sound) is, put quite simply, one of the worst I've seen- except for the film mentioned above, SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT-- that is the WORST. The picture and sound of PIECES is no better than a VCR tape's, and the only extras are scene selction (which consists of only four [FOUR?!] chapters), and recommendations for other Diamond Entertainment films.

Since this film is great, the DVD is a must-own, but it is really a dunce in sheep's clothing (the DVD, I mean). The presentation is horrible, and there are really no extras to be found (except for the ones mentioned above). Let me put it this way-- if you do not like the film, DO NOT get it. You MUST get the DVD for the film itself, and not for the presentation or extras. But hey, at [price], even if you don't like it, it's not that bad-- at least you can say you didn't waste that much money.

Rating:
Summary: Chainsaw Puzzle...
Review: PIECES opens with a young boy in his room, working on a jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle is a picture of a nude woman. The boys mother barges in, sees the puzzle, and goes berserk! She smacks the kid around, tosses his room, and humiliates him. The boy then takes an axe and buries the blade in mum's head. 40 years later, a string of (extremely graphic) chainsaw murders are occuring on a college campus. The victims (all female) are found cut in pieces, minus one piece. Yep, junior's all grown up now and looking for love! The police are on the case, led by Christopher George. Linda Day is an undercover officer posing as a tennis instructor. Can they nab this maniac before he slaughters every beautiful babe on campus? We get gallons of blood and gore, lots of nudity, and plenty of pompous emoting throughout. PIECES is certainly no masterpiece, but I did find it watchable...

Rating:
Summary: This is what i would call ?
Review: Pieces. When that is the title you know what to expect.
When i watched this flick the first time i had to laugh.
it had been a long time since i had seen something this bad and i loved it. The gore scenes are great, the actors suck and the story is terrible. And offcource it has it`s fair share of nudity, which is a must in a splatterfilm like this. The price is good so buy this one and have a great laugh.

Rating:
Summary: "pieces" to throw in the trash!
Review: Possibly the worst horror movie, or movie of any kind, ever made. I am one of the biggest horror movie fans around and I have seen hundreds of slasher flicks and this was the oscar winner for worst film ever made. It had no imagination. It had possibly the worst sound editor ever, as evident by the flaggitious dub job, the gore sequences weren't even buyable, nor was the blood, and the actors, where should I start? I was disappointed to have spent only [$$$] to purchase this DVD. I could have easily burnt the money and still had a better time. If any one suggests this movie to you, turn quickly and RUN!!!

Rating:
Summary: What a piece of crap.
Review: Save yourself from this film ! Even if you're a necrophiliac or a homicidal maniac on the loose, this film has NO redeeming qualities for you.

Rating:
Summary: War and Pieces
Review: Step aside, Citizen Kane, cuz there's a new sheriff in town.

Within the first 12 minutes of Pieces, you KNOW you're in for one abysmal ride. Here's what to expect during the following 80 some-odd minutes of this blasphemous creation:

Mother gets axed, child turns into a Frankenstein poser, schoolgirls get sliced and diced, students think they're the ...child of Columbo, chicks are being used as jigsaw puzzles, and everyone's a suspect.

Pieces is much like the crazy loon that assembles bodyparts of girls into a puzzle. The acting cuts, the dialogue tears, the editing is vile, the dubbing is absolutely disgusting. And for the cherry to top it all off, we're treated to quite possibly the most atrocious ending since Sleepaway Camp.

Join the chainsaw wielding psycho through this touching, moving, heartfelt, warm, engaging cinematic masterpiece. Forget Braveheart. Forget Schindler's List. Forget Gone With the Wind. Take the Pieces plunge. Your life will change for the better. Don't miss out on the most riveting, amazingly astounding, spectacular film event of the last 8 decades. If you only watch one movie in a lifetime, make it Pieces.

Piece out.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing nonsense
Review: Teenagers being sawn in two here. Not really much to say. You know who the perpetrator of the villany is even before the film starts. Plus you get very bad picture-sound quality.

Rating:
Summary: stupid, pointless, tasteless, garbage...and i like it too.
Review: There are some people who just will not get why anyone would like this film...that's ok. Thankfully this little gem is only six or seven bucks depending on where you buy it. I've taken film classes; i know what makes a great movie: editing, sound, cinematography, acting. This film has none of these, yet i found myself strangely entertained by it; it was like taking a handful of pills and staring at a ceiling fan for two hours. The parts of this movie that are bad are so in such a way that they amuse the lower levels of the brain. This movie operates in some form of primitive, limbic mode that entertains the simpler creature in all of us. There is a lot you could learn about yourself by having a lobotomy and watching this film a couple hundred times. I suggest it.

Rating:
Summary: Toss up
Review: This is one little twisted gore flick from the early 80's. It's about a killer on a college campus who's hacking up their victim's limb by limb (hence the title). It doesn't take brain surgery to figure out who's behind it, but along the way comes a lot of cheesy dialogue, awful dubbing, and some nudity which should please any fan of low budget euro-trash horror.