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Deadbeat at Dawn - Special Edition

Deadbeat at Dawn - Special Edition

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Easily one of the best action flicks ever made...
Review: Finally, Jim Van Bebber's immortal exploitation classic is back in print, and it's a beauty. Shortly available in a badly tranferred, overly bright VHS tape from Ketchum Video and a staple of video bootleggers everywhere (with some of the boots outshining the original), this is probably the best we will ever see the film look. As it is quite grainy and dark at times, the image is sharp, the colors are stable, and Van Bebber's gritty aesthetic shines through.

However, I take offense to the remarks made by Andrew MacEwen concerning this motion picture. It appears that Mr. MacEwen is the one who (as he snidely puts it) feels as if it makes a serious statement about modern society. Sir, you can feel however you want, but....Deadbeat At Dawn was a film intended for the drive-ins and hearts of B-Movie fans everywhere. While it may be about a very depressing scenario, Van Bebber's movie is meant to be little more than dumb gory fun and succeeds admirably. Maybe you should take out the pretentious attitude and rewatch the movie from another viewpoint.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Easily one of the best action flicks ever made...
Review: Finally, Jim Van Bebber's immortal exploitation classic is back in print, and it's a beauty. Shortly available in a badly tranferred, overly bright VHS tape from Ketchum Video and a staple of video bootleggers everywhere (with some of the boots outshining the original), this is probably the best we will ever see the film look. As it is quite grainy and dark at times, the image is sharp, the colors are stable, and Van Bebber's gritty aesthetic shines through.

However, I take offense to the remarks made by Andrew MacEwen concerning this motion picture. It appears that Mr. MacEwen is the one who (as he snidely puts it) feels as if it makes a serious statement about modern society. Sir, you can feel however you want, but....Deadbeat At Dawn was a film intended for the drive-ins and hearts of B-Movie fans everywhere. While it may be about a very depressing scenario, Van Bebber's movie is meant to be little more than dumb gory fun and succeeds admirably. Maybe you should take out the pretentious attitude and rewatch the movie from another viewpoint.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: GREENVILLE OHIO'S OWN
Review: FIRST THING I WOULD LIKE PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT "DEADBEAT AT DAWN" IS THAT JIM VAN BEBBER WROTE THE MOVIE WHILE GOING TO COLLEGE AT WRIGHT STATE IN DAYTON, OHIO AND IT IS PRETTY MUCH A TOTAL STUDENT PROJECT....HE COMES FROM THE SMALLTOWN OF GREENVILLE ABOUT 30 MILES FROM DAYTON.....I HAPPEN TO LIVE IN GREENVILLE....TO THE REVIEWERS THAT CALL DEADBEAT TRASH OR SLEAZE, IF YOU KNOW WHERE IT CAME FROM YOU WOULD THINK DIFFERENT. FOR ONE THING JIM DID ALMOST EVERYTHING FROM THE WRITING, DIRECTING, TO THE SPECIAL EFFECTS....JIM VAN BEBBER IS A VERY WELL KNOWN UNDERGROUND FILM MAKER STILL TODAY....THE MAN IS A PURE TALENT.....HIS LAST MOVIE IS YET TO BE RELEASED IN ANY FORM OF VIDEO AND IT WAS CALLED "CHARLIES FAMILY" A MOVIE ABOUT THE CHARLES MANSON FAMILY....."MY SWEET SATAN" IS A VERY GOOD PORTRAYAL OF A WHACKED OUT KID WHO GOT INTO SATANISM....JIM DID A GREAT JOB PORTRAYING "RICKY KASSO"...- TRUE STORY BY THE WAY....ANYONE WHO IS CURIOUS ABOUT THIS MOVIE SHOULD BUY IT NOW BEFORE ITS NO LONGER AVAILABLE!!!! YOU WON'T BE DISSAPOINTED....

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The print the director threw a tantrum over
Review: Go to the distributors web site and download the phone calls and Info and News, you will here Jim Van Bebber throw a temper tantrum over this print.

The first call is the funniest, anyway the film is really good and the print is too. It is hard to see what Jims problem is.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fun!
Review: I watched this film with a bunch of stuntmen..everybody was freaking out...We all loved it. Since then I'd sought out and seen all of Jim's other films..loved them too..I really want to check out "Charlie's Family" Mr.VanBebber's latest.. I hope it comes out soon.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: wow!
Review: I watched this film with a bunch of stuntmen..everybody was freaking out...We all loved it. Since then I'd sought out and seen all of Jim's other films..loved them too..I really want to check out "Charlie's Family" Mr.VanBebber's latest.. I hope it comes out soon.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: wow!
Review: I watched this film with a bunch of stuntmen..everybody was freaking out...We all loved it. Since then I'd sought out and seen all of Jim's other films..loved them too..I really want to check out "Charlie's Family" Mr.VanBebber's latest.. I hope it comes out soon.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Essential underground violence
Review: Low-budget gory action-flick greatness, starring the town of Dayton, Ohio as a hell from which there's no escape. Director Jim VanBebber stars as Goose, leader of a street gang called The Ravens, who war with a gang called the Spiders, led by a complete bastard named Danny. When Goose quits the Ravens, the Spiders kill his girlfriend, Goose hits the skids and goes about as low as a human can go... until a chance at vengeance and redemption brings him back, ready to go for broke. You can tell right from the giddy that this film is gonna be rough - the opening credits roll over scenes of Goose stitching up his own stab wounds. VanBebber took inspiration from the first Evil Dead movie and applied it to a kung-fu revenge formula by way of a street gang and came up with this, one of those movies that you sometimes put on "just to watch a minute or two" and end up watching the whole thing again, and again, and again. Dark, gritty, lowlife drama that's like no other, with martial arts and stuntwork that compare favorably to things seen in much bigger-budgeted films, lots of hardcore gore, unflinching nihilism, and some very inventive film-making. The extras are also nice - VanBebber's commentary is good (and I get the sense that they're making fun of the actor who played Bonecrusher by re-using some of his comments over and over - you'll see what I mean), My Sweet Satan (which is 16 minutes, not an hour) is an excellent short about the Ricky Kasso murder, and Chunkblower is, um, quite a trailer. Also includes a Skinny Puppy video if you play around and find the secret pentagram... ;) Definitely check this one out. I know VanBebber complained about the picture quality, but it's really not bad at all - I don't know what he was expecting, because this *was* filmed on the cheap... He might've been disappointed, but I wasn't.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: You have got to be kidding me!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Movies are made for our enjoyment. How good or bad they are is a matter of opinion. This movie however is really not open to too much debate. In the same vain as Vigilante and the Warriors (both much better films) this is the story of Goose played by Jim Van Bebber as the leader of a viloent street gang named The Ravens. Danny ,Paul Harper, is the leader of a rival Street gang named The Spiders and Hates Goose. Goose's girlfriend an Ouija reading weirdo trys to gets Goose out of the gangs. He finally relents and quits. When he dose the Spiders and Ravens join together. Danny sends two goons to kill Goose however they just beat his girl to death with golf clubs. Goose is crushed and hides out with his bum of a father for a while before finally just hitting skid row. The new leader of the Ravens get's Goose to come back to the gang's for one last job. I will not go into any more detail becouse the movie is not very long after that.
Deadbeat At Dawn is obviously an ambitious film from Van Beeber however it just never, and I mean ever, comes together. Had the movie focused more on Goose getting revenge for his girlfriend death it may have been a better film. The acting is really poor and the pacing is really off kilter. The movie has some very graphic moments and they do nothing but take away from the movie. Seeing a close up of someone getting there throat ripped open is not my idea of great filmmaking. You leave the movie finding it hard to hate but not easy to like. Van Beeber tries and just fails to produce a good solid movie, but at least he tried.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I still say it's junk.
Review: My original comment that Jim van Bebber pathetically believes he is making a serious comment about society was directed at the execrable My Sweet Satan, not Deadbeat at Dawn. Deadbeat, while not being the adolescently morbid piece of trash that my Sweet Satan is, is still third-rate junk. There are good B-movies (such as Roger Corman's, to name only one example), and then there is seedy sleaze. Van Bebber falls squarely into the latter category, in my opinion. One is free to disagree; there is no need to take offense....


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