HF: Rapace and Leatherface

This might be the last edition. 

My first post had me bemoaning last year's freak snowstorm that knocked out power, while this one features the arrival of a hurricane!  Next year, HEATWAVE!

Again, the next person I hear deny the existance of climate change is getting a fist to the face. 

PROMETHEUS
(Ridley Scott, 2012)
Ambitious but ultimately disappointing prequel to Alien in which a group of scientists brave an unknown planet after being summoned there by our creators.  Or something.  The film is murky on the science fiction and would've been better off just making it a straight sci-fi/adventure, rather than imposing DEEP QUESTIONS about our origins.  The film is a beauty to behold though, with top notch cinematography and production design.  Noomi Rapace is perfect as the lead, and her impromptu abortion is the film's squeamy apex.  Michael Fassbander is equally strong as an android, sadly not the Gigolo Joe kind.  The rest of the talented cast (Charlize Theron, Idris Elba and Guy Pearce in old man pancake makeup for no real reason) are wasted.  The crew from the first two Alien movies were memorable and likeable with well defined personalities.  I liked something I read online that if there was a button that said "Don't Push", every character in this movie would push it.  The claustraphobia of the first and relentless action of the second are nowhere to be found here, with the film's lackluster screenplay bringing down everything worth noting.  GRADE: C

LEATHERFACE: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 3
(Jeff Burr, 1990)
The raw horror and dark comedy of the first installments are thrown out the window in favor of a more typical slasher approach.  Friends driving from California to Florida are derailed in Texas (a Don't Mess With Texas sign makes an amusing cameo) by the franchise's family of inbred cannibals.  The cannibals this time have become so comical and over the top as to become nonthreatening.  Most of the action takes place at night, not the well filmed night sequences.  Most of the time it's hard to tell what is going on.  Though as much of a yawn as the story is, it's even harder to care.  Viggo Mortensen appears in one of his first major film roles.  (Interestingly enough, the next installment in the franchise featured Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger.)  Dawn of the Dead's Ken Foree also appears, and his character's fate was sealed by reshoots after test screenings.  I wasn't aware this film had such a hellish production, but watching the feature on the DVD made it clear that almost everyone who worked behind the scenes hated each other.  Problems with the MPAA led to the film being delayed 3 months.  It probably has a more interesting backstory than anything that happens onscreen.  GRADE: C