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Have you ever planned an elaborate surprise for someone special, only to have it backfire completely. Well, times that by ten and you’ve got the plot of Nash Edgerton’s Bear, the first short film presented in the VICE Shorts series. Being an offshoot of the (in)famous VICE magazine, one expects content that’s edgy, if not shocking, and hilarious, and the ten-minute Bear lives up to expectations.

Without spoiling anything, the film is about a man – with an awesome bear suit, hence the name – who plans a surprise in the woods for his girlfriend, but things go horribly, horribly wrong. Because it’s a short from VICE, one expects some sort of sick, shocking twist, so the impact is actually lessened by them presenting it. A decent start out of the gate, though. According to the press release, “The new web series fills the void of short films online by showcasing works of emerging directors on VICE's YouTube Channel, the leading destination for original online video programming.”

That channel is here and has over 600 videos, most of them documentaries, ranging in lengths from about five minutes to feature-length. They cover everything from pollution in China to getting high on snake venom, cannibal warlords of Liberia to the man who invented the Cosby sweater, plus snowboarding videos, celebrity profiles and restaurant features. Adding narrative shorts offers a fantastic high-traffic outlet for filmmakers directing shorts, which otherwise struggle to get seen outside of festivals. Other directors to be featured in the future include Spencer Susser, who directed Hesher, and Ray Tintori, who made music videos for MGMT.

Edgerton is a safe bet for launching VICE Shorts, as he’s been making shorts for two decades with his brother Joel, most shot in their homeland of Australia. Nash has worked in Hollywood as a stuntman on films such as Dark City, The Matrix series, The Thin Red Line, the upcoming Great Gatsby and as Ewan McGregor’s double in the last two Star Wars movies. Joel has appeared in Zero Dark Thirty, The Thing remake and the last two Star Wars movies as Uncle Owen. On top of that, Nash has directed three video for Bob Dylan.

But, as you can see by the shorts they’ve done, which are on the YouTube page for the brother’s film company Blue Tongue Films, they seem to be the most happy making action films with fast cars, foot chases, burst of violence and plenty of darkness. I watched all of the shorts directed by Nash, with the highlights being the twisted seventeen-minute, horror-themed Fuel; the grimly hilarious nine-minute companion piece to Bear, called Spider; and the spectacular five-minute stunt reel of a short called Lucky. Nash stars in the latter two.

If you enjoyed the shorts as much as I did, you’ll definitely want to check out Nash’s only feature-length film, the 2008 Hitchcockian thriller The Square. The crackling Aussie movie is an achingly suspenseful crime drama in which a man and his lover decide to steal a bag of money from her husband so they can run away together, but instead set off a horrible chain of events that leads to accidental deaths, intentional deaths to cover up the mounting crimes and loads of really grim twists. Check out the trailer and then watch it on Netflix – you’ll be surprised that it isn’t more widely known.

If this is the hint of things to come with VICE films, it’s a very, very good sign.

-Dave Alexander

Any modern movie too weird for Wikipedia is worth seeking out as far as I’m concerned. Case in point: The Catechism Cataclysm, which also happens to star one of the weirdest actors worth seeking out. Steve Little is best known as Stevie, the masochistically adoring sidekick to Danny McBride’s oafish, morally bankrupt baseball player character Kenny Powers in Eastbound & Down. Chin-challenged, spoon-chested, and slope-shouldered, Little has made the most of his physical presence (or lack thereof) to perfect an onscreen persona of the whiny, dewy-eyed sycophant. He’s the perfect whipping boy for McBride’s alpha-male character, but what if he was the star of the show?

That’s essentially what happens in The Catechism Cataclysm, which just showed up on Netflix and caught my eye, as its poster image features Little as a priest on what looks like a black metal album cover complete with nearly illegible font and the tagline “God will f**k you up.” Is it a comedy? A horror movie? A concert DVD? The whole thing screamed “WTF?!?” So I looked it up on Wikipedia but there was no listing for it. Clearly, I needed to see it.

Little stars as Father William Smoortser, a Catholic priest who doesn’t seem to understand parables, and confuses both his bible study group and the elder priest of his parish, who sends him on an early vacation to do some soul/parable searching. William decides to go on a canoe trip with a high school buddy he hasn’t seen in years, a musician named Robbie Shoemaker (Robert Longstreet). The trip begins with the priest losing his grandfather’s bible in a toilet bowl full of diarrhea and goes downhill from there…

Turns out that Robbie doesn’t play music anymore but is a roadie; he dated William’s sister briefly but doesn’t actually remember William; and he only agreed to go on the trip because William wouldn’t stop sending him emails. William is fixated on him, still idolizing him like he did in high school. The men sort of form an uneasy friendship as they drink beer and paddle down the river, but when they get lost, tensions explode and William’s angst reaches epic proportions as he throws their lighter and beer into the river. Everything seems hopeless until a couple of happy-go-lucky rich Japanese girls and their brooding, silent chaperone come by and invite the men to join their camp. This is when things go from strange to Planet Bizarro. I won’t spoil it, because you need to see it to believe it, but it involves booze, drugs, torture and giggling DJs.

Director Todd Rohal creates him own comic weirdo version of the Joseph Campbell mythic trip down the river, as seen in films such as Apocalypse Now and Aguirre Wrath of God. The conversations that two unlikely canoe-mates have are outrageous ("Judas Priest made me want to become a priest"), and the main narrative is interrupted by stories within-the-story, including one about a worker who is entombed alive in a cement freeway column and the woman who loves him and feeds him through a small hole. And just to make it all that much stranger, Rohal spikes this spiritual journey with a soundtrack of seriously heavy music that shouldn’t fit the film but in its own bizarre way works just fine.

If you’re wondering what else the filmmaker has made, he most recently helmed the Patton Oswald/Johnny Knoxville comedy Nature Calls, which has by far the most normal name in his filmography of titles such as Slug 660, The Guatemalan Handshake, Knuckleface Jones and Hillbilly Robot. (How can you not want to see a movie called Knuckleface Jones?)

I count Rohal among a club of filmmakers able to build laughs out of the most uncomfortable social situations, least likely leading characters and absolutely absurd plots twists – along with directors such as Quentin Dupieux (Rubber, Wrong – which also features Little, as a detective able to access the memory of a dog turd!), Todd Solondz (Happiness, Welcome to the Dollhouse) and Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Gentlemen Broncos – a personal fave). These guys aren’t making movies for the masses but rather are pushing the boundaries of comedy into some uncomfortable new directions.

The Catechism Cataclysm will find its cult audience, as the above films have, and it’ll get its own Wikipedia entry. But until then, it remains a square peg even amongst square pegs.

-Dave Alexander

That is the question with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return to the big screen as an action star, headlining The Last Stand, his first major role since Terminator 3 in 2003. A successful stint as California’s governator, a failed marriage full of infidelity, and a lovechild with the maid later, the world’s biggest action star has returned – or rather, he’s come back – to Hollywood. Regardless of what you think of his personal life or past career, there’s no denying that the ‘80s A-lister is one of the hardest working men in show-biz, something evident with the slew of projects announced. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at Arnold’s comeback.

He wet his feet, of course, with a cameo in The Expendables (2010), alongside Bruce Willis, in a scene that was stilted, awkward and shot in three hours, apparently. His character, Trench, returned in a larger but still modest role in The Expendables II last year, driving around in a smart car with Willis’ character, spouting painfully contrived one-liners and Swiss cheesing scads of terrorists with a huge gun. A wasted opportunity all around.

The real test will be The Last Stand, which opens this Friday, and so far, at the time of this writing anyhow, it looks like Arnold chose wisely. The film is directed by Jee-woon Kim, the Korean filmmaker behind the remarkably kinetic, action-crammed and fun-loving action-comedy western The Good, The Bad and the Weird, plus the creepy original (read: good version of) A Tale of Two Sisters, as well as the absolutely stellar, unhinged serial killer movie I Saw the Devil. He's a perfect director to be paired up. Judging by the trailer, there’s appropriate comic relief in the form of Johnny Knoxville and Luis Guzmán, and, most importantly, there’s a giant Gatling gun, and everyone know you can never go wrong with a Gatling gun in an action movie (it’s actually a scientific fact, look it up). The trailer has a great one-liner about his character being old, and if Bruce Willis and Clint Eastwood have taught us anything, that's always endearing. Finally, believe it or not, as I write this, the movie is 100 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, after thirteen advanced reviews. Even the critics are being kind.

Expect a win for the Returninator. But what about the other half-dozen completed/announced/vaguely rumoured Schwarzenegger movies floating around out there? Well. At least two are for sure because they’ve been shot. One is The Tomb, another safe bet because it pairs the actor up with that other unsinkable ‘80s action hero, Sly Stallone. Sure, Arnie appears in The Expendables films with him, but this is a straight up buddy movie kind of dynamic as Sly plays a man who designed the world’s most secure prison, is framed for a crime, and winds up there, needing to escape. It’s a solid premise at the very least, plus Vinnie Jones and Jim Caviezel co-star. Oh yes, there will be prison fights.

After that, Schwarzenegger stars in Ten (which may now be re-titled Breacher), in which he plays John “Breacher” Wharton, the leader of a DEA team that steals a whack of money from a cartel safe house and whose members are then hunted by a hit man. Sam Worthington and Terrence Howard co-star, and Arnie’s character sports tattoos and a killer ass-kicking-old-guy haircut. Director David Ayer recently made the solid and very gritty cop drama End of Watch, which is also a plus. However, hopes would be higher for this one if Ayer also hadn’t written The Fast and the Furious and writer Skip Woods hadn’t penned Hitman and the truly awful Wolverine movie. (Though, he did write the rather fun A-Team movie.) Expect some entertaining dialogue and explosive action sequences.

Then there’s Captive, which, like many films on this list, is far from a sure thing. What is known is that the plot revolves around a kidnaped real estate magnate buried alive inside a vehicle in a Brazillian landfill and the detective trying to locate him. The writer/producer is Danish newcomer Nicolai Fulsig, who perhaps will also direct if it gets made. It’s not clear what Arnold’s role would be – possibly the landfill if he really lets himself go…

Also a big maybe is Unknown Soldier, a Schwarzenegger action-fantasy (according to the IMDb) project co-written, again, by Skip Woods, plus a couple of guys who have penned some straight-to-video action flicks. The actor announced this prospective project himself as a Bandito Brothers film – the producers of Act of Valour, that Navy SEALs movie starring real navy SEALs.

More in the Wishful Thinking file is The Governator, which, after a comic book made with the backing of Stan Lee, and then a cartoon, would be a 3-D movie featuring the former Governator as a hero who leaves politics to fight crime with cool gadgets and vehicles, possibly something called “a wheelchair” by the time this would actually get made. It doesn’t sound particularly interesting, and definitely not timely.

And then there are the sequels, which are the easiest rumours of all, especially considering Stallone’s success with late-series sequels to both Rocky and Rambo. Terminator 5 is of little surprise, but Arnold’s going to make for a rather silly-looking killer cyborg at this point. The last terminator movie was so bad that there doesn’t seem to be a reason to make this regardless. A CG version of the actor did appear briefly in that film, so maybe they should stick to that.

The worst Schwarzenegger sequel idea, which the actor mentioned there being interest in while on a panel at the San Diego Comic Con (was he just pulling a fast one?), is Triplets, a sequel to the 1988 comedy Twins with Danny DeVito. This one’s not even worth discussing out of the realm of April Fool’s Day jokes.

However, there has been one sequel that the actor recently discussed, which is my personal Arnie dream sequel, and that’s the long-discussed third Conan (remake not included). Schwarzenegger kick-started his career playing the mighty barbarian in the 1982 movie and its 1984 sequel. For decades there has been talk of a third Conan movie in which he’s aged King Conan, battle scarred and defending his throne. Original Conan director John Milius pursued the film for years, finally giving up in 2001. As of last October, Universal was publically discussing development of a Conan sequel in the wake of the disastrous reboot of Conan the Barbarian. Now, Arnie has said that The Legend of Conan may even shoot this year in New Zealand. One of the film’s producers, Frederik Malmberg said last week in an interview, “It’s that Nordic Viking mythic guy who has played the role of king, warrior, soldier and mercenary, and who has bedded more women than anyone, nearing the last cycle of his life. He knows he’ll be going to Valhalla, and wants to go out with a good battle.”

There’s more info on the project in this Empire article, including the movie being described as Conan’s Unforgiven, which is unlikely but exactly the right approach and exactly the kind of thing Schwarzenegger should be doing in his mid-60s. The film could be downright epic in the right hands.

Discard the pure rumours and sillier sequel ideas and Schwarzenegger is mining his Golden Years for all they’re worth. I, for one, am pumped up about it.

-Dave Alexander

It’s considered by some critics to be the greatest Australian film ever made, and it was directed by a Canadian. Next week Ted Kocheff’s Wake in Fright gets its first North American release since hitting theatres in the early ‘70s. Made in 1971, it’s considered part of the Australian New Wave (along with titles such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave and Long Weekend) and embodies the sort of gritty, ugly, violent, boundary-pushing aesthetic found in films that were being made in Hollywood in the '70s by a new generation of film school graduates such as Martin Scorsese, William Friedkin and Francis Ford Coppola. Kotcheff, who was born in Toronto, earned a degree from the University of Toronto and worked at the CBC, eventually moved to the UK to work in film. After making two features, he was hired to helm the adaptation of Kenneth Cook’s 1961 novel Wake in Fright. (The filmmaker would later go on to make the Canadian classic The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, First Blood, Uncommon Valor and Weekend at Bernie’s.

Wake in Fright stars Gary Bond as John Grant, a teacher in the Outback who leaves on the train to meet up with his girlfriend for Christmas in Sydney. First, though, he has a stopover in the working class town of Bundanyabba, where the locals get him drunk and introduce him to the town gambling den. After winning a wad of cash, he makes one last big play to score enough to solve his financial problems but instead loses everything. Flat broke, John falls in with the hard drinking but generous locals, including an alcoholic doctor played by Donald Pleasance, who lets him stay in his filthy shack and feeds him kangaroo meat. Desperate, frustrated and crazed from the heat, he gives into his most savage impulses when he joins “Doc” and his testosterone-charged buddies on a drunken kangaroo hunt.

In the film’s most notorious sequence, the men shoot, run over and viciously stab the animals. The protracted butchery is real, as the filmmakers joined an actual kangaroo hunt to get the footage. It’s absolutely stomach-churning stuff – an orgy of violence in an already impossibly ugly movie thick with sweat, dust and flies. Yet, it’s not gratuitous in the context of a story about self-destruction. When John wakes up from it all, the horrors he committed threaten to consume him as he tries to finally escape Bundanyabba.

Wake in Fright is a savage fever dream with performances that match the intensity of its atmosphere (and much credit must go to John Scott's surreal, menacing score for making everything feel so dangerous). Bond, as John, slowly sinks into the madness of his surroundings with harrowing, tortured believability, and Pleasance gives what might be the best performance of his career as an educated man who reluctantly accepts his fate blending in with the locals because they don’t question his drinking problem.

It’s such a dark depiction of Australian life that it never aired on television or made it to VHS. In fact the film was believed lost for years until the movie’s editor decided to track down the negative, which he eventually found in Pittsburgh, in a filmhouse bin, where it was marked for destruction. It was digitally restored for an Australian DVD/Blu-ray release, and now it’s being released by Drafthouse films, the imprint spun off from the famed Alamo Drafthouse I blogged about previously. It comes in various special editions (with two hours of bonus features), including one with a poster autographed by Kotcheff and vintage Aussie pennies replicating the ones used in the gambling sequences; it can be ordered here.

This isn't the happy-go-lucky version of the country we often see in movies. Wake in Fright is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach, but it’s a masterpiece of Australian cinema… by way of a Canuck.

-Dave Alexander

In an era where you’re more likely than not to have your theatre experience sullied by talkers and texters, the name Alamo Drafthouse stands as a beacon of sanity in a movie world gone mad. Founded in Austin, Texas in 1997 by Tim and Karrie League, and since franchised to over 20 locations (in Texas, Virginia, Missouri, Colorado, New York and California – some locations still under construction), the concept was to offer a movie experience for adult movie lovers. Old movie houses were renovated to include kitchens that offer a full menu of food and alcoholic beverages, each seat is assigned and has a countertop space in front of it to eat, servers dressed in black take orders written on paper, a no talking/texting policy is strictly enforced with patrons being ejected if they break the rules, and special programming is the order of the day, in addition to mainstream picks. The Drafthouse is known for hosting retro series, such as their Summer of ’82 one from this past year; premieres with cast and crew; all kinds of cult oddities and other types of movie geek programming.

When I found myself in Austin this New Year’s, there was no way I was going to miss a chance to attend an Alamo Drafthouse screening. There are several Drafthouses in Austin but I picked The Ritz, as it was close to my hotel and showing a movie that was shot, is set in and is about the city, called Austin High, a low-budget stoner comedy. The Ritz is on Austin’s famous 6^th Street, near a variety of cool bars with names such as The Jackalope and Casino El Camino, cheesy tourist stores and the Museum of the Weird (sort of a tiny Ripley’s Believe It or Not). It's an exciting spot.

Beneath the nean Alamo sign, the lobby retains an old movie house feel, with vintage fixtures and low-key lighting, but with a window added in which to buy tickets and drinks. I get a cold pint and a seat (only $10) in row six. The theatre itself also retains a classic look with the exception of the counters that stretch across every row. Before the feature they play vintage trailers, viral YouTube videos, and ads for upcoming programing – including the original Django and Dial M for Murder in 3-D for Big Screen Classics, Purple Rain for Music Mondays and Dirty Dancing for Girlie Night. I settled into my comfy seat with the movable arm rests (nice touch) and watched the theatre etiquette warnings with a grin. Why can’t more movie houses take a hard line rude patrons?

There’s a menu tucked under the counter in front of each seat. Burgers, pizza, salads, wraps, seasonal beers, gourmet milkshakes (salted caramel, for example) and all-you-can-eat popcorn make the mouth water. I opt for pizza and Asian chicken salad, which is stealthily dropped off after the movie starts. The portions are generous and the quality is better-than-average – this isn’t the overpriced stale nachos and greasy hot dogs on most theatre menus.

The movie itself is solid little comedy that showcases Austin. The plot sees the pot-smoking principal of a high school (where everybody is, er, high all the time), see his world rocked when a strict vice principal arrives to clean the place up. As staff and students become casualties of the new regime, he must decide whether to sell out to help his own daughter go to a private school, or stay true to his pro-marijuana soul and embody the free-wheelin’ spirit of Austin. Along the way, there’s a pedi-cab war, a shady politician trying to “clean up” the city and plenty of teenage high-jinx. The screening, which was a memorial for cast member Andrew Dallas, featured several other cast members, including co-writer/star Michael S. Wilson, speaking after the film.

It was the kind of specialty programming that can only find a home in theatres such as the Drafthouse, and it made the entire evening such a departure from the usual multiplex experience. For about the same price as a mainstream movie with pop and popcorn, I had a movie, dinner and a beer. Given the growing popularity of the Drafthouse cinemas, hopefully this is a sign of things to come – reasonably priced specialty cinemas with good food and beer, that don't tolerate disturbances. The Drafthouse doesn’t permit anyone under six or any unaccompanied minors to its screenings, and as of Januray3, no one will be permitted into the theatre after the film begins; this is an experience for adult film lovers. It was also the first time in a while I was at a movie and didn’t see someone pull out a phone.

Who knows if the franchise will makes its way to Canada, but given the crowds that the Drafthouse is able to draw, there’s certainly a burning desire for an alternative to the standard multiplex experience. Will theatre owners here take notice? Damn, I sure hope so, because this is how it's done.

-Dave Alexander

I had plans for a Christmas-themed blog post, but all that went out the window with the stomach flu. On the upside, however, when I wasn’t in the bathroom getting sick, I had plenty of time to lie in bed and think about the year in film. Yes, once again, superhero movies made a kajillion dollars, Bond returned on the franchise’s 50^th anniversary, the hobbits are back and apparently there was another Twilight movie. But my feverish thoughts kept returning to one thing: guns.

Violence, particularly gun violence, has overshadowed everything in 2012, due to the shooting at a Dark Knight midnight screening in July, in which twelve people died and 58 were wounded, and the Newtown school shooting, in which 26 people, mostly children, were murdered, prompting the NRA (National Rifle Association) to both call for armed guards in school and blame violent movies and video games for the tragedy. Blaming movies for the ills of society goes way back; for example, the Motion Picture Production Code (a.k.a. Hays Code) from 1930, which laid out guidelines to censor things such as “brutality and possible gruesomeness” and “the use of firearms.” In the wake of the Newtown shootings, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) promised, in a vague press release, that it is ready to take action. The NRA, meanwhile, went on the offensive against cries for gun control, and in a press conference, spokesman Wayne LaPierre blamed “blood-soaked” video games and, ironically, Natural Born Killers (1984) and American Psycho (2000).

I say ironically because these films aren’t pro-violence at all. The former is a cartoonish – and very prescient – look at violence and the media, how one fuels the other and glamourizes death dealers. The latter is a dark comedy satirizing 1980s Regan America (made by Canadian director Mary Harron). The NRA was obviously making a very important statement to the world, so why pick those films? Why not choose something contemporary that glamourizes violence, such as Skyfall or The Expendables 2? No film series in the word has done more to make firearms sexy and cool than the James Bond movies; the stylized credits for every film feature a mix of tuxedos, beautiful women, killing and Bond’s Walther pistol. The Expendables 2 is an orgy of tough guy gunplay and one-liners, completely glorifying extreme brutality.

Well, as this Business Insider piece points out, the most important product placement (out of many) in the Bond franchise is the gun, and the NRA certainly doesn’t want to alienate one of the companies that manufactures guns and most likely supports its organization. Given the buffet of weaponry in the Expendables films, the problem would be tenfold. An EW article from 1999 titled Where Hollywood Gets Its Guns details the close relationship between gun companies and Hollywood, noting, “In fact, for years now, the adversarial gun and film industries have indirectly been in business together, using each other to sell their products even as they cudgel one another on the op-ed pages” – and there’s no reason to think that’s changed. American Psycho is a safer one for the NRA to pick because main character Patrick Bateman’s weapons of choice are things such as a bat, a hatchet, a chainsaw and a nail-gun. And Natural Born Killers has long been accused of causing violence, including the Columbine Massacre.

The movie is clearly a reaction to violence, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a trigger. Then again, Charles Manson was murderously influenced by Beatles’ lyrics, so do you blame the Manson Family’s crimes on “Helter Skelter?” While violent media can, with certain individuals, exacerbate violent tendencies and fuel violent fantasies, most of the time it serves the opposite effect. One of the best books on the subject is Jeffrey A. Kottler’s The Lust for Blood: Why We Are Fascinated by Death, Murder, Horror and Violence. It’s an intelligent, fascinating and well-reasoned looked at humanity’s savage side and how we deal with it. As he points out, we’ve evolved socially and technologically much more quickly than we’ve evolved physically and emotionally, which means that we’re still driven by those animal instincts that allowed us to survive and flourish. Yet we’re not a Klingon-like warrior society, and that’s because we’ve learned how to supress and channel those violent tendencies into things such as sports and other adrenaline-releasing activities such as riding rollercoasters, video games and movies. So, while The Expendables films are mindless celebrations of violence, they serve an important purpose.

We need our violent fantasies as an outlet to avoid violent realities. And if you think we’ve become more violent, as Kottler notes, consider that before cinema, people entertained themselves by throwing Christians to the lions, with fight-to-the-death gladiator sports and attending public torture and executions.

This brings us back to 2012, though, and these horrific mass shootings. There’s always going to be a desire and a need for violent entertainment, so laying blame and censoring entertainment is pointless, especially in an age where most kids know how to download anything online. The obvious solution is more gun control in the U.S. In a piece for Deadlie.com, Mike Fleming Jr. makes a very important point about the issue. “Those ‘blood-soaked films’ the NRA refers to are now digested by worldwide audiences. Spend five minutes on Google and you come away with some interesting questions. Why is it that in 2008, for instance, there were 12,000 gun homicides in the U.S., compared with 42 in Great Britain and 11 in Japan, where kids are watching the same films and playing the same games.”

Speaking as a former gun owner, from a family of gun owners, who loves going to the shooting range and looking at the museum pieces at gun shows, some of the gun control efforts in Canada have been ridiculous when it comes to things like excessively policing things such as farmers’ rifles and shotguns. But there’s no reason that assault rifles, the weapon of choice for mass shootings, should be easy to obtain. The numbers don’t lie: gun control works. As this article from the December 4 Vancouver Sun points out, this year, the number of Canadian deaths related to firearms hit its lowest point in 50 years. Yes, 50 years... that is astounding.

When it comes to the U.S., though, firearms are so commonplace that even if they were banned for sale tomorrow, there would still be more than enough to allow them to be obtained easily for generations to come. Currently, it’s estimated that there’s more than one gun per person in the U.S. but it’s hard to say definitively because you don’t have to register them in most states.

But guns have been around a long time, so what’s behind this spike in mass-murder over the past fifteen years? I think Roger Ebert hit the nail on the head in his review of Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (a movie about a Columbine-like killing spree), which was recently linked to on Boingboing.net in the wake of Newtown:

[I]f they are influenced by anything, [they] are influenced by news programs… . When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn't have messed with me. I'll go out in a blaze of glory.

To prove his point, I stumbled across this “news” story, published months after the Dark Knight theatre shooting, about a romance the (alleged) killer had with a grad student. It has a huge photo of the (alleged) killer, his name in the headline and link to a gallery of pictures of him. This is the kind of irresponsible tabloid reporting usually reserved for the actors in Twilight. The murderer is given the same kind of attention as an A-list celebrity, so no wonder others of a similar mindset would latch onto murder sprees as a way to leave their mark on the world. The media is complicit. It works.

Most newspapers have policies about reporting on suicides; they either don’t report on them unless it’s someone notable, or they don’t print the person’s name. There needs to be a similar set of guidelines laid out for these types of mass killings, to curb the cult of celebrity surrounding them. I didn’t mention either of the shooters names here for good reason; I don’t want to give add to their notoriety. Discuss, don’t sensationalize. Even if it is human nature to obsess over violence, it’s also human nature to self-preserve, so let’s stop encouraging more shooters. Let’s evolve.

This year brought with it some heart-wrenching, pointless violence, but to blame movies is to fail to understand the problem. Violent films keep violence in the fantasy world; idolizing murderers brings it into the real world.

Here’s to a safer 2013.

-Dave Alexander

For almost 40 years, Troma has given the world hundreds of the cheesiest, sleaziest low-budget genre movies, including the Toxic Avenger series, Class of Nuke ‘Em High, Redneck Zombies, Surf Nazis Must Die! and the original Mother’s Day. Boobs, blood, slime and psychotronic madness are the cornerstones of the independent New York City production/distribution house.

If this sounds like your kind of a low-brow good time, you’re in luck, because Troma has posted over 250 of its films online for free. Some of them are the public domain staples we’re used to seeing in every multi-movie bargain pack, such as White Zombie and The Devil Bat, but most of them were made and/or exclusively distributed by the company. The only question is, how do you decide between Frog Monster From Hell and Horror of the Humungous Hungry Hungan? Do you curl up in front of the fire with Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator or A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell? Will it be Baconhead or Meat Weed Madness?

Understandably these are tough choices, but perhaps I can help by choosing my top five free Troma movies with which to delight and damage your psyche.

Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006)

This one’s a great litmus test to see if you jive with the world of Troma productions. Here, the company goes for broke with a story about a fast food worker named Arby – ha!) who’s trying to win back his girl and gets a job at a chicken joint built on an Indian graveyard. Zombie chickens, mutants, gore, politically incorrect jokes, topless lesbians, and hilarious musical numbers (some featuring Troma president Lloyd Kaufman in a skirt) make for deliriously good time as long as you snort a package of Pop Rocks and hit yourself over the head with a mallet before watching.

Cannibal! The Musical! (1993)

Before they shot to fame for creating South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone made Cannibal! The Musical!, which is (very) loosely based on the story of 19th century miner Alferd Packer. Played by Parker, Packer, via a series of flashbacks, recounts the sordid events that resulted in him facing the gallows. Seems he was part of a mining party travelling from Utah to Colorado, which got lost and, following a series of mishaps including a lost horse and a run-in with some trappers, resorted to cannibalism to survive. The often morbid musical numbers are forerunners to the jaunty lunacy of the ones in South Park, and will have you laughin' out loud.

Nightbeast  (1982) and Blood, Boobs & Beast (2007)

 These may be two different movies but you need to see one to really understand the other. Nightbeast, which is for the so-bad-it’s-awesome set, features the tagline, “If you have the guts – he wants them!!!” and a titular monster that crash lands near a small town and goes on a killing streak. The thing looks like a cross-between Admiral Ackbar and one of the Gremlins and only attacks during the day… Blood, Boobs & Beasts is a documentary about the unassuming Don Dohler, who made Nightbeast and eight other features. It’s a compelling look at an unassuming man who made crazy cult flicks and was also very influential in the worlds of underground comics and genre magazines. Centered around his last feature, Dead Hunt, it was released after Dohler died at age 60, in 2006.

The Children (1980)

This underrated environmental horror movie presented a new spin on the zombie movie, way back in 1980. Some sloppy workers accidentally release a toxic cloud that poisons a group of school children, who then become yellow-skinned ghouls with the power to essentially microwave anyone they touch. And touch they do, forcing the locals to fight back. It’s a ragged but creepy little movie that’s effectively disturbing in its depiction of violence towards children, and did a good job in ruining the most innocent thing on Earth: a child’s hug. Good work, Troma!

The Hanging Woman (1973)

One of the less likely Troma acquisitions, The Hanging Woman (a.k.a. Orgy of the Dead) features the late, great Paul Naschy, a.k.a. “The Lon Chaney of Spain,” in a supporting role as a mad gravedigger, and on that strength alone it makes this list. Set in a 19^th-century Scottish village, it’s got plenty of atmosphere to tell its tale of evil omens (which appear after a stranger visits to claim an inheritance), devil worshippers, necrophilia and zombies. It’s tons of ‘70s fun and a great chance to see Naschy in action under heavy makeup, while diabolically contorting his body. It's the definition of retro-Euro horror.

And thanks, Troma, for all these toxic tidbits.

-Dave Alexander

This past Monday night, Quentin Tarantino was in Toronto for the Canadian sneak peek of Django Unchained. He appeared on stage for all of about a minute, welcomed the crowd, cackled about us having to check our cell phones, got the audience to yell “Unchained” after he yelled “Django” and was gone… No Q&A (despite the fact that he was introduced by TV talk show personality George Stroumboulopoulos), just a red carpet walk beforehand. It was disappointing for the all the folks who had won tickets for a “screening with Quentin Tarantino,” made worse by the fact that they waited the better part of a hour to retrieve their phones from security afterwards.

Hmmm... a buzz-building screening three weeks before the official opening, unnecessarily tight security and the filmmaker on a whirlwind press tour – producers the Weinstein Brothers aren’t taking any chances building hype for a film that’s a tough sell.

Why is it a tough sell, you ask?

Well, for starters, it’s a western, not the most popular genre with modern moviegoers. And among westerns, it’s a “remake” of a spaghetti western, the genre’s dirty, violent, blood-red-headed stepchild. A bigger challenge for distributors, however, may be demographics, as there aren’t many westerns with black protagonists – this is considered the John Wayne/old white guy genre that, despite a few attempts, such as Mario Van Peebles’ Posse (1993), has never successfully targeted a black audience in the way that dramas, action or horror movies have been able to do. It doesn’t help that the film is two hours and forty-five minutes-long, either.

All of this also makes Django Unchained interesting, of course, and the kind of film that only Tarantino has the style, movie geek interest and clout to get made. With a few weeks to go before it hits theatres on Christmas Day, there’s plenty of time to discuss it more in-depth, however, there’s no time like the present to get a primer on what Django is all about for the majority of moviegoers who may not know what to make out this thing.

If you know your spaghetti westerns, you probably know that the Django films are second only to the Clint Eastwood/Sergio Leone Man With No Name movies in terms of grit and popularity. But Django Unchained has virtually nothing to do with the original 1966 Django. Just as Tarantino’s Inglourius Basterds really only shared a title (sort-of) with the obscure Italian action/war movie Inglorious Bastards, Django Unchained has almost nothing in common with the 1966 Django, save for the theme, credit design, presence of a hooded militia and a crack-shot protagonist who spins his gun on his finger. Tarantino's film is about Django, a slave (Jamie Foxx) who’s freed by a German bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz, who won scores of awards for his portrayal of a Nazi officer in Inglourious Basterds) in order to track down a gang of wanted me that only he can identify, having been owned by them. In exchange, the bounty hunter helps Django rescue his wife from a nefarious cotton plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio), with expectedly bloody results.

The original Django, co-written and directed by spaghetti western legend Sergio Corbucci (The Great Silence, Companeros), stars Franco Nero (who has a small role in Unchained as a slave owner) as the title character. Unshaven, unemotional and unencumbered by seemingly anyone or anything, he’s the new breed of western hero that was born when Clint Eastwood and director Sergio Leone teamed up for A Fistful of Dollars in 1964, the first entry in their archetypal Man With No Name trilogy. This new breed of merciless gunslinger was an embodiment of the changing time, as movies in general became more violent.

The Man With No Name wears a poncho and chews on a cigar; Django’s particular affectation is the coffin that he drags around with him, which is eventually revealed to contain a sort-of Gatling gun, which he uses to mow down a mob of attackers, Rambo-style. The film begins with Django recuing a prostitute from being killed by men employed by Major Jackson (Eduardo Fajardo), a ruthless thug who employs a small army of men in red hoods and likes to shoot Mexicans for fun. Jackson killed Django’s wife and he’s out for revenge. After taking out most of the militia with his big, bad, implausible gun, our anti-hero joins forces with Jackson’s enemy, General Hugo Rodriguez (José Bódalo) in order to heist gold from a Mexican army fort where Jackson does business. But Django doesn’t trust the General, and cuts out in the night with his share of the gold, which he stashes in the coffin. But when his horse throws the casket from the wagon, it slides down a hill and disappears into quicksand – just as the general shows up and has his men beat Django and break his hands. The General is then shot by Jackson, who goes after Django, who lies in wait at the local cemetery for a final showdown.

This was several years before the most violent western ever made, The Wild Bunch, and the blood and brutality on display was both shocking and popular with audiences. Django was banned in Britain until 1993, and to date there have been about 30 unofficial sequels to it (with outlandish titles such as Django Kill (If You Live, Shoot!), Django, Get a Coffin Ready! and Django’s Cut Price Corpses). It didn’t matter if the script had nothing to do with the first film, just adding the name to your movie made it automatically more valuable in the movie market. The only official sequel, which saw Nero return to the role, is Django Strikes Again, from 1987.

It's easy to see why Tarantino would fall in love with such a crazed cult movie, and he was paying homage to it was early as in Reservoir Dogs, with the severed ear scene. Django has also been referenced in the video game Red Dead Revolver, in the popular Cowboy Bebop anime series and by a bunch of bands, including Racid, which has a song called “Django” and Danzig, as you can see in this music video for the song “Crawl Across Your Killing Room Floor.”

Django is a pop culture icon, but it's not the same character as in Django Unchained. Not that that’s a bad thing necessarily, but what’s the point in using the Django name then? Following a tradition of barely-related sequels, because it just sounds cool, or did part of a faithful story get lost in editing? The film seems to have had much cut out of it, as evidenced from some well-known character actors who appear very briefly, notably Bruce Dern (The Trip, Hang ‘Em High, The 'burbs), who's in the movie for literally seconds during a flashback.

The point is, don’t see Django Unchained if you want to see a Django movie, but do go see it if you want some spaghetti western-style grit and gore, which it contains. With that kind of running time, you’d think they coulda squeezed at least one shot of a damn coffin being dragged around.

-Dave Alexander

Buford T. Pusser would’ve turned 75 on December 12... had he lived another four decades. Instead, the sheriff who inspired the Walking Tall movies was killed when he crashed his Corvette into an embankment, on August 21, 1974. The vehicle burned up so badly that it was impossibly to prove sabotage, but given that he’d survived being stabbed seven times and shot eight times while on the job, it’s not unlikely.

Any lawman who survives that much bodily harm is probably worthy of having a movie made about him, but Pusser became a Southern folk hero because he earned those wounds standing up to the local criminals who were tainting his stomping grounds of McNairy County, Tennessee with illegal gambling, prostitution, moonshine and other crimes befitting organizations with names such as the Dixie Mafia and the State Line Mob. The towering 6’6” Pusser – a former football and basketball player, and marine – returned home and decided to clean house, particularly the Shamrock motel and restaurant, which was a hub for good ol’ boy criminal activity. The lawman became known for carrying around a big stick (hence the title Walking Tall) to help keep people in line, and eventually gained national media attention when his wife Pauline was killed during an assassination attempt, which saw him take three bullets.

Pusser also had a reputation as brutalizing “fascist cop,” and may have hired a hit-man to avenge his wife’s murder. He also enjoyed being famous, serving as the technical advisor on Walking Tall. (The day before he died, he’d even travelled to Hollywood to sign a contract to star as himself in the sequel to the film.)

But that kind of stuff doesn’t make for a good movie mythology, so instead his story was embellished to the point of being absolutely bonkers, and thank the redneck gods for that because there’s no movie like Walking Tall. Joe Don Baker, who’s best known for supporting roles in Cape Fear, the Dukes of Hazzard remake and two Bond movies, plays Pusser, a man looking to leave behind his days as a wrestler and settle down in his hometown with the wife and kids. His Tennessee farm, which boasts not one but two catfish ponds (!), is idyllic, however, there’s something rotten going on in town. Corruption has taken hold like a cancer – gambling, prostitution, moonshine and police who look the other way are all tied to a roadside restaurant/bar/motel called The Lucky Spot. When Buford visits and calls them out for cheating at craps, he’s beaten, cut up and left in a ditch for dead.

But that’s like trying to fell a redwood with a steak knife, and after our steely hero realizes the cops won’t help him, he whittles himself a piece of hickory and starts 'a smashing. Before long he becomes the new sheriff and, along with his deputies, goes to war on the local crime ring, which fights back all kinds of muscle. Thus goes the plot, a series of escalating attacks and counter-attacks results in deaths on both sides, including Buford’s wife. By the end of the film, Pusser, wearing a Hannibal Lecter-like face cast after taking a shotgun round to the face, goes after the Lucky Spot itself.

The violence in Walking Tall is wonderfully absurd, as Buford cracks open heads with his stick, gets carved to a bloody pulp, uses wrestling movies to toss polyester-clad gangsters through poker and craps tables, and even shoots a woman in the face who fires on him. The liberally-applied, garish stage blood is almost as loud as Baker’s wardrobe, which is mostly fashion boots, tight polyester pants and mustard or ketchup-coloured shirts. It’s uproariously funny to watch a guy dressed like a ‘70s-era Sears catalogue model get in fights, shoot-outs and car chases. (On a personal note, it’s even stranger when he looks a fair bit like your dad did when you were a little kid!). And the way director Phil Karlson (known for making tough guy gangster movies) shot Walking Tall, it often looks like a cross-between a sitcom and a Dukes of Hazzard episode. Baker gives an emotionally-charged, fist-clenching performance, which makes it all that much more fun.

I discovered this Southsploitation classic during my video store days, when fans of the series would drive across town to rent it, and earlier this year Shout! Factory put out a special edition Blu-Ray with all three films (the second movies star Bo Svenson, who also played Pusser in a short-lived T.V. series), great cover art and some choice extras. The highlight bonus is a doc on Pusser, which, bizarrely has no pictures of the man himself in it, but does has former child star Leif Garrett (who played Pusser’s son in the movie), acting like he crawled through a bong to get to the interview. Funnier is Pusser’s daughter, who wears more makeup and jewellery than Tammy Faye Baker and has turned her father’s legacy into its own cottage industry. Her daughter also appears, looking like a she’s just come from a porn star beauty pageant. I’d speculate as to whether or not Buford is spinning in his grave but I assume he was buried with his stick and therefore can’t rotate much.

So, happy birthday, Buford Pusser, and thanks for inspiring such wild ride down a dirt road kinda film. May you be smashing angels ‘til your heart’s content and walking tall with wings on.

-Dave Alexander

Few events, in general, are as over-hyped as the Oscars, and in the world of film, perhaps the most underappreciated event is the Independent Spirit Awards. Founded in 1984 (and called the Friends of the Independents Awards for the first two years), the non-profit organization celebrates, you guessed it, independent cinema. These are the movies with budgets a fraction of the size of the average Hollywood blockbuster, and often they much less easy to categorize.

This year's nominees were announced today, and the most well known of the entries in the Best Feature category is the latest Wes Anderson film, the coming-of-age comedy Moonrise Kingdom, which has the highest profile thanks to both Anderson's reputation and his impressive ensemble cast, which includes Bruce Willis, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and Jason Schwartzman. Anderson's wonderfully directed (and art directed) features are the epitome of what most consider a quirky, idiosyncratic "indie" film.

Close behind it in the Best Feature category in terms of profile is the relationship drama/comedy Silver Linings Playbook, which stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert DeNiro. The category is rounded out by coming-of-age tale Beasts of the Southern Wild; the gay-themed relationship drama Keep the Lights On; and Bernie, a true crime comedy that probably benefits more than any of the other films by being on the list because it's the toughest one to categorize.

I caught the film this summer, while travelling, on hotel pay-per-view (it's currently on Netflix, FYI). The poster is bland and doesn't say much, and with Jack Black starring it seemed to be a broad comedy, yet the trailer didn't elicit many laughs from me. The reviews were very good, however, and once I realized it was directed by legendary indie filmmaker Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise, Waking Life, School of Rock), I was convinced. Well, it turned out to be one of the best films of the year.

Black stars as the real life Bernie Tiede, a beloved small town funeral home worker who becomes the companion for miserable but wealthy old Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine). The closeted Bernie works his way into the extremely unpopular woman's heart. They go on cruises and vacations together; he moves in and becomes her right hand man, handling her finances; and she eventually cuts her estranged son out of her will entirely in favour of him. Bernie gives both his time and their money to just about everything, from donations to the Boy Scouts, to putting on plays, and he's heavily involved with the church in both respects. But Marjorie increasingly demands more of his time, and then becomes downright abusive, until one day he snaps and shoots her in the back four times with a 22-calibre rifle. He hides the body in the freezer and pretends she's sick, but eventually a cop (Mathew McConaughy) begins to investigate.

The film is an even mix of dark comedy, character study and true crime, making the $6 million movie just about impossible to market to the mainstream but ideal for the indie world, even if putting Black in as the lead suggests a wacky time at he multiplex. He captures his character's down home demeanour and suppressed frustration perfectly, adding just a touch of mania to suggest what the man is capable of doing when pushed too far.

Of course the whole thing is really fascinating because it hews closely to the real story (which is detailed in this ten-minute documentary), which took place in 1996, in Carthage, Texas. Linklater incorporates footage of what is either very realistic mockumentary footage or actual documentary footage of townsfolk reacting to the crime, plus a snippet at the end of the film of Black spending time at a prison with the real Bernie Tiede, who's currently serving a life sentence.

That Bernie may be anything but a free spirit nowadays, but the film he inspired is exactly the sort of hard-to-categorize movie just made for the Independent Spirit Awards. Movies like this allow familiar stars such as Black to break their typecasting in some wonderful ways. So if you were curious as to just why your favourite A-lister sometimes appears in these kinda random small movies for obviously not much money, look no further than Bernie.

-Dave Alexander