CINEmelma: non aprite quel regalo

Nel 1992, mentre hollywood già spendeva centinaia di milioni di dollari per singoli film pieni di effetti speciali, un eccelso regista dimostrava che erano sufficienti alcuni grandi attori ed un capannone industriale per produrre un capolavoro assoluto.
Come dite? Le Iene di Quentin Tarantino?
Ma siamo impazziti?!?!
Io parlo di Demonic Toys di Peter Manoogian!

Una agente di polizia che si ritrova incinta del suo amato collega non trova momento migliore di dirglielo degli attimi precedenti l'arresto di alcuni trafficanti di armi. Purtroppo la loro copertura salta, e nella sparatoria che ne segue il futuro papà viene ucciso assieme ad un malavitoso.
La donna insegue il superstite in un vecchio magazzino pieno di orripilanti pupazzi satanici che - ahiloro - si animano a contatto col sangue.
Assieme al custode, all'uomo-pollo e ad una bimbetta fuggita di casa dovranno combattere i peluche per aver salva la vita!

Solo alla fine verrà loro svelato l'inquietante segreto dietro ai Giocattoli Infernali (che casualmente è pure il titolo italiano di questo filmone)!

Un'idea risibile, pupazzi animati un po' come marionette ed un po' in stop-motion ed una gran voglia di produrre il proprio filmaccio horror: è questo il vero cinema di serie B (se non C) che amiamo!

Si salva il grande pupazzo malvagio Baby Oopsy Daisy, cattivo e cinico al punto giusto.

A questa grande produzione hanno lavorato alcuni componenti della famiglia Band (figli e (pro-)nipoti di Albert Band), da sempre invischiati in simili B-movies; altra cosa da segnalare è l'improbabile cross-over con la serie iniziata con Dollman di quella purulenta pustola di Albert Pyun: Dollman vs. Demonic Toys (anche Giocattoli Assassini) contiene numerose scene rubate dai film precedenti e promette d'essere un vero gioiello del trash.

Voto: 3. Trashometro^® 7/10: Trash divertente: 7/10

Tags: horror, giocattoli, demonio, gravidanza, trash.

Pyun, Albert

Nome di battesimo: Pyun, Albert F.

Ultimi lavori:

Cool Air (2006) (V) .... [regista]
Infection (2005) .... [regista]
Max Havoc: Curse of the Dragon (2004) .... [regista]
Final Examination (2003) (V) .... (producer) [produttore]
More Mercy (2003) (V) .... (producer) [produttore]
Ticker (2001) .... (producer) [produttore]
Corrupt (1999) .... [regista]
Urban Menace (1999) .... [regista]
The Wrecking Crew (1999) .... [regista]
Crazy Six (1998) .... [regista]

Biografia:
No other film director has been so much vituperated against as Albert Pyun. Frequently compared with Edward D. Wood Jr., they both share a fascination for the bizarre. Pyun has a feel for the stylistic and hypnotic, changing the conventions of fiction, and makes each of his movies extreme experiences.Unintentionally born in San Diego, he was later brought up in Hawaii, and his Hawaiian childhood was illuminated by an unending movie consumption that would turn him into a guest of the cinemas regularly used by the marines from the Kaneohe military base, where awful horror movies and tacky action films were massively projected. And at the age of nine, Pyun started shooting short films with an 8mm camera borrowed from his parents. At sixteen he embarked his mates into gang movies that he later revealed underground, while working at night as editor, sound technician or electrician for local laboratories.Following his graduation, at eighteen he traveled to Japan. Once there, supported by Toshirô Mifune, he succeeded in getting hired as a trainee of the great Akira Kurosawa. Back in the Estates, he shot over three hundred adverts. Taking advantage on the revival of the sword & sandal gender fostered by John Milius' Conan the Barbarian (1982), he obtained funding for The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982). Probably one of his less loathed films, a visual fest, extremely pulp, although with a touch of gore not suitable for all. Its unexpected success would raise the interest of Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, the owners of Cannon Films, a flashy producing company.Under the Cannon seal, Pyum would complete some of his most widespread films such as Cyborg (1989), a vehicle for the up-and-coming martial arts actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, it was initially conceived as a heavy opera without dialogue, shot in granulated black and white, but the proposal encountered the refusal of producers, opposed to this kind of avant-garde displays.In 1993, Pyun made another movie on cyborgs, Nemesis (1993), where scenes of gunfests prevail over martial arts, compared to his previous movies. It has a great cast of brute actors (and actresses), and is pre-empting the cyberpunk aesthetics of later movies. Its success would give way for three sequels, progressively vast, jointly shot in a flicker with an imaginary budget.He usually has to overcome budget shortages, re-editing and other kind of damage caused by producers and distributors intendingto bury his authorship. The swiftness of his shooting of movies gives way for an avant-garde exploration, and Albert Pyun belongs to that lineage of film makers not appreciated as it should. To define Pyun, we could call him a sort of Jean-Luc Godard from the B (or Z) series. Albert Pyun has completed more than forty films over the worst circumstances.Pyun's creative restraints has frequently pushed him to shoot two films at once. While completing a project with a more or less assured budget (never generous though), he takes advantage from locations and technical teams to shoot undercover an "author's fancy", sometimes in just two or three days.Pyun has hardly ever controlled the final editing of his films, but he always shoots in scope format, with anamorphic and wide-angle lenses, in an attempt to emulate the shot compositions and usage of framing of his master, Sergio Leone. Re-edited by producers and re-framed to satisfy the television and video market requests, a large part of Pyun films magic has gone missing. Eager to preserve the originality of his work, Pyun created the production company Filmwerks in 1994, through which he will finance a handful of titles representing an illustrative summary of his unique and captivating art.Despite some reverses and bashes, Pyun has manage to complete Infection (2005), a film where he finally has been able to exert full control, and recovers his avant-garde impulse along with his hectic creativity. Once more, Pyun leaves the spectator in a shock following a display of his technical skill: this time, the focus is on the shooting of a definitively psychotronic plot in real time and on one sequence-shot.Albert Pyun is already working on new projects that he describes with his characteristic enthusiasm: "Cool Air", an adaptation of Lovecraft currently in an editing stage; a remake of Mean Guns on a Faustian tone; he is even considering the making of a surrealistic western, "Left for Dead", that he is to shoot simultaneously with "War Zone", a bellicose nightmare.

Trivia random: Writers trademark: The character 'Brick Bardo' was used by Pyun in 7 of his earlier films (Radioactive Dreams (1985), Alien from L.A. (1988), Deceit (1989), Cyborg (1989), Bloodmatch (1991), Dollman (1991) and Nemesis III: Prey Harder (1996) (V)), and also in his more recent film, Infection (2005). The character is played twice by Tim Thomerson, Scott Paulin and Christian Andrews, and once by Thom Mathews and Ralph Moeller.

Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.

Tarantino, Quentin

Nome di battesimo: Tarantino, Quentin Jerome
Data di nascita: 27 March 1963
Altezza: 6' 2½" (1.89 m)

Ultimi lavori:

Grind House (2007) .... (producer) [produttore]
Hell Ride (2007) .... (producer) [produttore]
Hostel: Part II (2007) .... (executive producer) [produttore]
Freedom's Fury (2006) .... (executive producer) [produttore]
Inglorious Bastards (2006) .... (producer) [produttore]
Killshot (2006) .... (executive producer) [produttore]
Reservoir Dogs (2006) (VG) .... (screenplay) (story) [scrittore]
Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That (2005) (TV) .... (special thanks) [misc]
Daltry Calhoun (2005) .... (executive producer) [produttore]
Hostel (2005) .... (executive producer) [produttore]

Biografia:
In January of 1991 a film titled Reservoir Dogs (1992) hit the Sundance Film festival. The writer-director was a first-timer by the name of Quentin Tarantino. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend in the England, UK and the cult film circuit. Three years later he followed up 'Dogs' with the film Pulp Fiction (1994). 'Pulp' premiered at the Cannes film festival, where it won the coveted 'Palme D'Or' the virtual equal of the Best Picture at the Academy Awards. At the '93 Academy Awards, 'Pulp' was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, in addition Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, among others. Tarantino and writing partner Roger Avary came away with the award only for Best Original Screenplay. (Where Roger uttered his now famous line, "I've gotta go pee".) In 1995, Tarantino directed one fourth of the Anthology Four Rooms (1995) with friends and fellow auteurs Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, and Allison Anders. That film was released on December 25th in the United States to very weak reviews. This is mainly due to the heavy cutting of the first two segments and the introduction which make much of the plotline unintelligible, and creates a complete mess out of the second segment, directed by Alexandre Rockwell. The best two segments of the film are Robert Rodriguez's and Tarantino's. Tarantino's next film was From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), a crime/vampire film which he wrote and co-starred with George Clooney. The film did fairly well theatrically.

Trivia random: Ranked #81 on Premiere's 2004 annual Power 100 List. He was unranked in 2003.
Citazione random: (at MTV Movie Awards 1994) as he won Best Picture for Pulp Fiction (1994)) "Pop quiz, hotshot: you go to the awards ceremonies all year long; you keep losing to Forrest Gump (1994)! It's really annoying the hell out of you - what do you do? You go to the MTV Awards!"

Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.