My New Favorite Movie: 2006’s “Aachi & Ssipak”

If you are in any way, shape or form a fan of weirdness, then you owe it to yourself to see 2006’s Aachi & Ssipak—

Hilarious, action-packed animation from Korea as punk hoodlums battle government killer-cyborgs, the mutant Diaper Gang and porn-obsessed gangsters to make it in a future where poop is money!

Coming soon to a theater near you! (If you live anywhere near Brooklyn, that is…)

LIE #53: Be Cruel to Your School (From 1976, DVD MIA “Massacre at Central High”)

Massacre at Central High (1976; Rene Daalder) is an incredible political metaphor disguised as a sleazy B-movie that needs to be (re)discovered*. 

Copious violence and teen nudity is the hook to get asses in the seats, but like with the best grindhouse potboilers, a strong sociopolitical message is inserted.

Not that that should stop you from enjoying naked teenagers getting slaughtered.

LIE #46: Dolls Have No Feelings? A Review of 2009’s DVD MIA “Air Doll” (and some other films)

Air Doll (2009; Hirokazu Koreeda) is what you would get if Nagisa Oshima adapted a Hans Christian Andersen or Grimm’s fairy tale: a doll gets a heart and becomes human—with all the resulting pain and suffering that that offers.

But in this case, the doll is the type you inflate and have sex with—including a removable polymer vagina; and the overall film is a bleak metaphor/comment on the routine and system-wide subconsciously reinforced dehumanization of women, grounded by an impressive performance by lead Doona Bae.

In other words, a doll gets a heart and finds out that it’s not worth it.

LIE # 42: No Guilt! (And “Bad Movies I Love”: Michael Bay’s “The Island” and “Army Medicine in Vietnam”)

Before we look at this week’s “Bad Movies I Love”—one of which happens to be almost a snuff flick, and the other being Michael Bay’s 2005 clone conspiracy sci-fi shoot-’em-up The Island (no relation to Michael Ritchie’s 1980 pirate gorefest)—let’s look at that very same phrase, and why it is preferable to “guilty pleasures.”

LIE#1 (with a review of DVD MIA “The Day of the Beast”)

LAUNCH!
Welcome to 
LERNER INTERNATIONAL ENTERPRISES—

Much in the same way Advanced Idea Mechanics was an offshoot of HYDRA,
This is an offshoot/spin-off of (sequel to?)
The United Provinces of Ivanlandia,
& this site intends to be more straightforward than its schizo-lysergic-manic big brother.
LERNER INTERNATIONAL ENTERPRISES will be an attempt to publish more, editorialize more, and concentrate on the writing.

All matters of interest will be covered, but
primarily LIE will be covering films, and how they might relate to my evolving theories regarding The Cinema of Weirdness.