Worth Mentioning - No Weakness, No Pain, No Mercy

We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.

Modern youths, '80s inspiration.

PSYCHO GOREMAN (2020)

The latest film from director Steven Kostanski, who first caught attention for the work he did as part of the Astron-6 production company and most recently directed the Leprechaun sequel Leprechaun Returns, PG: Psycho Goreman is sure to achieve cult classic status immediately upon its release. This is a movie that is going to leave a lot of viewers baffled as to why others enjoy it, but it's also going to appeal very strongly to the sensibilities of certain members of the audience, and those viewers are going to love it from beginning to end. They're going to be championing Psycho Goreman for years to come.

The story Kostanski crafted here is reminiscent of the '80s movies where young kids befriended strange creatures - like E.T., or Gizmo the Mogwai in Gremlins, or Frankenstein's Monster in The Monster Squad. But while those creatures were pure of heart, even if they were associated with villainous characters, the creature befriended by off-kilter youngster Mimi (Nita-Josee Hanna) and her brother Luke (Owen Myre) is a bloodthirsty maniac - a warlord known to some as The Ultimate Evil and The Archduke of Nightmares, who would like nothing more than to wipe out the entire human race as part of his effort to destroy the galaxy. Problem is, Mimi has gotten her hands on a powerful gem, and Psycho Goreman (Mimi is the one who gives him that name) has to follow the orders of anyone who has that gem. And what Mimi wants is for Psycho Goreman to play with her and Luke. To take part in their games of Crazy Ball, the sport she invented. To play drums in their garage band. A conqueror of worlds has become a little girl's reluctant pet.

While Mimi is playing games with Psycho Goreman, the alien's former allies and enemies become aware that he is active on Earth after a period of being dormant, and both descend on the planet. No matter who gets here first, it's obvious there's going to be trouble when they arrive... But no matter whether it's Psycho Goreman's friends or foes on the screen, they're a terrific sight to behold. Konstanski has named Star Wars movies, Power Rangers, and Masters of the Universe as sources of inspiration for this project, and that is especially clear in the design of the alien characters. Some of them may look grosser than the action figures kids had in the '80s, but I found it impossible to look at these creatures without having flashbacks to my Masters of the Universe toy collection.

But while Psycho Goreman made me think of toys, movies, and cartoons from my '80s / early '90s childhood, the film also has a hard, bloody edge to it that will make it too intense for most younger viewers to handle. This is an R-rated movie, it's not The Monster Squad for a new generation, it's for the adults who grew up on this kind of stuff years ago. If the set-up is "What if E.T. had been a homicidal madman?", the confrontation between characters is like the answer to the question "What if the fights in Masters of the Universe had been gorefests?"

This is a movie with a very goofy sense of humor, it's not meant to be taken seriously at any point along the way, but there is a line I would not have been able to cross: if Mimi and Luke were complicit when Psycho Goreman kills people - and he does, it's not a question of "if" he'll kill - then I would not have been able to go along with what the movie was showing me. That would be a step too far. Thankfully, the kids do not order him to kill people, they're not little psychos. Well, Mimi is pretty out there, but she's not that kind of crazy. The kids are able to shrug off the gruesome sights they see quite easily, but they're not killers themselves.

On screen actor Matthew Ninaber shared the role of Psycho Goreman with voice actor Steven Vlahos, and even though the sound of his dialogue was manipulated in post and took some getting used to, the duo worked together to create a great performance. The title character is completely believable as a terrifying maniac, but he can also be quite funny while still being intimidating.  Nita-Josee Hanna is fascinating as Mimi; it's incredible that such a young actor made some of the comedic choices she did. She is perfectly over-the-top. It's going to seem kind of strange when she shows up in a different movie to play a normal human being, because Mimi doesn't fit that description. Owen Myre did good work as Mimi's more grounded brother. My least favorite character was Mimi and Luke's dad Greg, played by Kostanski's fellow Astron-6 member Adam Brooks. It was obvious that Kostanski liked him way more than I did; I found him even more irritating than his wife Susan (Alexis Kara Hancey) does.

This movie might annoy some people who check it out, but a lot of viewers are going to have a blast with it. I had fun watching its mixture of tributes to '80s fantasy stories and '80s practical gore effects, and am happy to know that it's going to be receiving a good amount of love and appreciation.

The review of Psycho Goreman originally appeared on ArrowintheHead.com

THE KARATE KID (2010)

If you've ever wondered why Will Smith has an executive producer credit on the Cobra Kai TV series, the answer goes back to 2010, when Smith's production company Overbrook Entertainment acquired the rights to The Karate Kid so he could produce a remake of the 1984 classic for his son Jaden Smith to star in. Despite the fact that I grew up watching the original Karate Kid movies, it took me eleven years to get around to watching the remake, as I just didn't have much interest in it. To be honest, the fact that the elder Smith decided to revive the property just to give his son a starring vehicle didn't sit that well with me, and my interest was lessened even further by Jaden Smith's age; his character in the film is only 12 years old, and why would I want to watch a bunch of 12 year olds beating each other up?

Directed by Harald Zwart, the 2010 version of The Karate Kid sticks so closely to the scenes and structure of the original film that the original film's writer Robert Mark Kamen receives a story credit, while Christopher Murphey earned the screenplay credit. Even though this is, at its core, just the '84 movie all over again, the remake earns some points by not committing sacrilege. It doesn't say that its lead characters are Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi. Those characters belong to Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita. The characters here are Dre Parker and Mr. Han - and if there's one thing this movie got perfectly right, it's the casting of Jackie Chan as Mr. Han.

The film begins with Dre and his widowed mother Sherry (Taraji P. Henson) leaving Detroit so Sherry can take a new job in China. As you might expect, Dre finds adjusting to life in a country where he doesn't speak the language to be complicated, and when he approaches a girl named Meiying (Wenwen Han) he becomes the target of a group of bullies led by Cheng (Zhenwei Wang). Cheng isn't Meiying's boyfriend, but clearly doesn't want any other boys to be hanging around her. Making matters worse for Dre, Cheng and his pals are being taught kung fu at a studio where the motto is "No weakness, no pain, no mercy."

Mr. Han is the maintenance man at the apartment building Dre and Sherry move into, and while he's standoffish at first, he does step up to help Dre when the kid is getting knocked around by Cheng and the other bullies. This means Jackie Chan has a fight scene where he's taking on a bunch of kids, but it's shot in such a way, and the choreography is so cool, that it works. He manages to handle the young attackers without actually hitting any of them himself. Then he and Dre go to talk Cheng's teacher Master Li (Yu Rongguang) about his students' behavior, a conversation that ends with Han saying Dre will fight Li's students one-by-one in an upcoming tournament.

Yep, if you saw The Karate Kid, this whole story will be very familiar to you. The biggest problem is, this movie shouldn't have even been called The Karate Kid, despite how closely it follows the events of The Karate Kid. That's because there is no karate in here. Master Li teaches Cheng and the others kung fu. Han teaches Dre kung fu to prepare for the tournament. The movie doesn't try to hide the fact that the characters aren't doing karate, they don't say they're doing karate, they always say it's kung fu. This should have been called The Kung Fu Kid. Apparently the cast members did refer to the movie that way during filming, and in China the film is called The Kung Fu Dream, but producer Jerry Weintraub - who produced all of the previous Karate Kid movies - insisted that they had to stick with the title The Karate Kid even in the absence of karate.

Jackie Chan is the main draw of this film, even if he's not the one doing most of the martial arts on display. The fight he does have is a standout moment, and he also turns in a terrific performance. Much like Mr. Miyagi, Mr. Han has a tragic back story, and Chan does great work in the scene where he reveals that back story to Dre. I have to admit, Jaden Smith surprised me, too. He was actually a decent little actor, and there's a whole lot of Will Smith evident in his performance here. It doesn't seem like the kid skipped his kung fu training, either.

"The Kung Fu Kid" can't match up to The Karate Kid for me, it never stood a chance, but it doesn't tarnish the legacy of its predecessor. This is a well-made, respectful remake. 

The film was a financial success and a sequel was announced, which might have been interesting to see, but it just couldn't make it into production for whatever reason. Sahara director Breck Eisner had been attached to take the helm, and it seems like this happens to him all the time; he signs on to direct a high profile film and it crumbles out from under him. Creature from the Black Lagoon, Friday the 13th, The Karate Kid 2... That can't be fun to go through again and again.