Kio-Kz
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Kio-Kz
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Sample: Title; rating (out of 4); principal setting; year of release; international co-producer (if any); cast; description; scriptwriter; director; content warning; running time.
THE KISS
* 1/2 setting: USA.
(1988) Joanna Pacula, Meredith Salenger, Mimi Kuzyk,
Nicholas Kilbertus, Peter Dvorsky, Jan Rubes.....After her mother's
death, an American girl (Salenger) gets suspicious of her recently arrived
aunt (Pacula), who may be a witch. Better than usual direction and
pseudo-Freudian undercurrents can't make this more than a bad horror pic
with silly f/xs. Actually, it seems more like a diet-Coke commercial
(evil aunty only wants her to drink health foods)! British-born Canadian
director Densham went on to bigger things as a Hollywood producer of "Robin
Hood: Prince of Thieves" and filmed-in-Canada series like The
Outer Limits. Interestingly, although he used his Hollywood clout
to do set-in-Britain projects (Like "Robin Hood" and "Moll Flanders"),
he's never set anything in Canada...not even this film! sc: Stephen
Volk, Tom Ropelewski. dir: Pen Densham. - extreme violence, sexual content,
brief female nudity.- 100 min. (video)
KISSED
* *
(1997) Molly Parker, Peter Outerbridge, Jay Brazeau,
Natasha Morley, James Timmons.....Story of a necrophiliac (Parker)
-- someone who's turned on by dead things --- who gets a job at a mortuary,
and her still-living boyfriend (Outerbridge) who seems increasingly obsessed
with understanding her obsession. Odd little film came out the same
year as Crash and covers similar ground (weird
sexual fetishes). It's technically more accomplished than its higher-profile
cousin (better written, directed, and acted, particularly Parker and Outerbridge)
but suffers from similar problems. It's slow-moving and, though you're
sure it's probably intended as a metaphor somehow/someway, it ultimately
just seems like a chronicle of necrophilia...without providing any genuine
insight into the character's motivation (despite voice-overs). Some
humour might've helped, too. Definitely not for the squeamish.
Parker received the Best Actress Genie. Additionally, the movie provides
some food-for-thought on gender politics: the film was critically well-received...now
imagine the reaction if it had been a similarly sympathetic portrait of
a guy who slept with dead women. Hmmm? sc: Angus
Fraser, Lynne Stopkewich (from a story by Barbara Gowdy). dir: Lynne Stopkewich.
- female nudity, male nudity, sexual contentt.- 79 min. (video)
KISSINGER AND NIXON
* * 1/2 setting: USA./other
(1995) (/U.S.) Ron Silver, Beau Bridges, Matt Frewer,
Ron White, George Takei, Kenneth Welsh, Henry Chan, Tony Rosato.....Story
of American politician Kissinger's (Silver) attempt to negotiate a peace
in Vietnam in '72, despite U.S. president Nixon's (Bridges) obstructionism.
Political dramas can be among the most gripping, but this one is just O.K.
Decent performances from all, though Silver and Bridges (under heavy make-up
that occasionally makes them look more like Muppets than people) do a better
job imitating their characters than getting inside them...a problem with
the script as well. And the complex issues themselves seem short-changed
for the sake of the running time. Still, it's so nice to see Canadian
filmmakers devoting so much time to American history instead of, oh, I
don't know, something that's actually about Canada! This made-for-cable
movie aired just weeks before the release of the big-budget feature, "Nixon".
sc: Lionel Chetwynd (from the book Kissinger: a biography by Walter
Isaacson). dir: Daniel Petrie. 100 min. (video)
KITCHEN PARTY *
* setting; CDN.
(1997) Scott Speedman, Kevin McNulty, Gillian Barber,
Sarah Strange, Tygh Runyan, Laura Harris, A.J. Bond, Jerry Wasserman, James
McBurney.....A suburban teen (Speedman) hosts a party in the kitchen
'cause he can't allow so much as a fibre to get out of place in the living
room or his neat freak parents (McNulty and Barber) might jeopardize his
plans to go away to university; meanwhile, his parents are away at a dinner
party. Odd-ball film leaves you wondering what it is: is it a comedy? Certainly
the scenes involving the living room are quirky (with the characters studying
the carpet, trying to figure out how to match the vacuum patterns after
the carpet is inadvertently scuffed). Is it a drama? Except nothing really
goes anywhere. Is it a serious examination of disaffected teens and the
breakdown of the nuclear family? Or is it just slice of life? The teen
actors are good and those scenes evoke a realist feel but Burns writes
and directs his adult characters, in cutaways to their party, like he's
never even met someone over the age of 20. Alternatingly sort of
interesting, kind of boring, and, in the scenes with adults, cringe-inducing
in its broadness. sc./dir: Gary Burns. 82 min.
KOOTENAI BROWN *
* 1/2 setting: B.C./N.W.T./USA.
(1991) Tom Burlinson, Donnelly Rhodes, Michelle Thrush,
John Pyper-Ferguson, Brent Stait, Alex Bruhanski, Raymond Burr, Stephen
E. Miller.....On trial in 1870, John "Kootenai" Brown (Burlinson) tells
of his various exploits; including being a gold miner in B.C. and later
being adopted by metis led by Gabriel Dumont, and how these culminated
in murder. Fictionalized true story is interesting but a little dry
(particularly in the beginning). Could've been better but is buoyed
thanks to a surprisingly lively and funny performance from Rhodes as an
increasingly sinister Scot. Scripter Gray, better known for writing
musicals, has an early cameo as a successful gold prospector. a.k.a.
Showdown
at Williams Creek. sc: John Gray (story Gary Payne). dir: Allan
Kroeker. - violence, partial female nudity.- 98 min. (video)
This action TV series was a far cry from its predecessor, focusing mainly on clumsily staged fisticuffs and macho posturing, and eschewing the mood and character-driven drama of the original...and, as such, is an insult to fans of the more thoughtful and ambitious mid-'70s U.S. series, "Kung Fu" (Carradine plays the gandson of his character from that show). What attempt there is at philosophy is usually hokey and seeming insincere. However, to give the Devil his due, the show developed a loyal fandom and actually ran one year longer that its predecessor... though the ratings needs of a syndicated show vs. a network series (like the original) are somewhat different. Uneven performances, with kudos going to Potter, Lansing, Chan, Dunlop and Snow. Carradine was more uneven...but sometimes he delivered a performance of such genuine empathy that it just emphasized the rest of the show's inanity. 4 seasons, totaling 88 hour-long episodes in syndication (including some 2-parters).
KURT VONNEGUT'S HARRISON BERGERON a.k.a. Harrison Bergeron
KURT VONNEGUT'S MONKEY HOUSE * * * (1991) Kaj-Erik Eriksen; Gordon Clapp, Jackson Davies, Donnelly Rhodes; Len Cariou, Miguel Fernandes.....Twilight Zoneish anthology flick (though only one is fantasy) introduced by author Vonnegut. "Next Door", about a kid, left alone, who witnesses a murder; "The Euphio Question", about euphoria inducing cosmic transmissions; "All the King's Horses", about a U.S. diplomat playing a deadly chess game with a Latin-American rebel. Entertaining pic is well done with a mixture of comedy and drama. Better than the similar Bradbury Trilogy. Followed by a very short-lived TV series (about 4 additional episodes) of similar quality. sc: Jeremy Hole, Jeffrey Cohen, Stan Daniels (from short stories by Kurt Vonnegut). dir: Paul Shapiro, Gilbert Chilton, Allan King. app. 86 min.