(1990)
Dir - Craig Pryce
Overall: MEH
Also shot in Toronto and released the same year as Darkman, Revenge of the Radioactive Reporter can be looked at as the no-budget and lame comedy cousin to Sam Raimi's bombastic superhero classic. This was the first film from producer/director/co-writer Craig Pryce, and he takes a noble stab at Troma-esque exploitation, utilizing some ridiculous gore as well as the same avenging anti-hero gag that The Toxic Avenger did, except the tasteless sleaze is toned-down in place of embarrassing one-liners and hackneyed characters. The plot is as straightforward as it gets, with David Scammell's dopey title reporter uncovering fraudulent activity from the most comically evil toxic waste corporation on planet Earth, confronting the CEOs, and then getting pushed into a vat of radioactive goo that leaves him looking like Freddy Krueger on his quest for revenge. It is plenty violent and mean-spirited, but Pryce and screenwriter David Wiechorek's comedic chops are lacking, so the movie becomes exasperating with its embarrassing, lazy, juvenile, and icky gags.
(1991)
Dir - Jean-Pierre Jeunet/Marc Caro
Overall: GOOD
For their first full-length collaboration Delicatessen, writer/directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro craft a wet, monochrome, earthy, metallic, and stylized dystopian black comedy where jobs are scarce, food is scarcer, and at least one guy and his despondent tenants are willing to let some hapless saps get lured and butchered to keep meat on the table. An underground terrorist organization of vegetarians also shows up, and it all culminates with a destructive showdown that turns an apartment building into a battleground where a nice former clown is just trying to get away from a maniac landlord who wants to slice and dice him. At the heart of the whole thing is a sweet and blossoming love story, giving the whole film an absurdist tone that is matched by an impressive production design and delightful performances. It never goes detrimentally heavy in any direction, expertly riding a line of goofy and grown-up, with a central theme of mankind's humanity clashing with its desperation and the former thankfully triumphing over the latter. The duo's equally cinéma du look-tinged follow-up The City of Lost Children makes a logical companion piece to this and was even more Terry Gilliam inspired and inventive, but their work here is just as strong and enduring.
(1998)
Dir - Darko Mitrevski/Aleksandar Popovski
Overall: MEH
The full-length debut from the Macedonian filmmaking team of Darko Mitrevski and Aleksandar Popovski, Goodbye, 20th Century!, (Zbogum na dvaesettiot vek!), is a rare post apocalyptic anthology movie for its country, as well as one that defies genre classification. Part absurdist comedy, part arthouse, part Mad Max knock-off, part musical, part surreal nightmare, even part Christmas movie, it gets by on its singularity more than anything else. The plot is wildly unfocused, mostly lingering on the dystopian future segment where a bunch of nomads try to kill an immortal. It then spends a mere three minutes on a turn of the century one where a pair of siblings marry each other and are immediately killed, closing out with a guy in a Santa Claus costume who wanders into an oddball wake before a punk rock guy and his almost topless girlfriend crash it, play Sid Vicious' rendition of "My Way", and then everyone gets murdered. There may be a semblance of meaning lurking behind a barrage of images and set pieces that seem to bask in a juvenile sense of profoundness, but it all gets lost in translation. Eye-popping and occasionally humorous, its wacky for the sake of being wacky aesthetic jives curiously with a heavy tone at times, all of which seems to lead to some death of civilization theme that is of course merely speculative.
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