Change Your Image
thismortalsoil
Reviews
Suburbia (1983)
Flawed, but
Despite the low budget and poor acting, this movie is one of my favorites. I really felt sympathy for the TR kids. I knew some people who were like them, and I even identified with some of them. There was a time in my youth when my friends and I all had a crash pad we could run off to if things got unbearable at home. Another highlight of the film were the excellent performances by TSOL, DI, and the Vandals. It's neat to see how far the 'scene' has come. Many still argue that punk is 'dead', I will not comment. TR kids were angry, poor, outcasts trapped in a world of disappointment, anguish and rejection. They weren't the best of people, one dealt in drugs, others were burglars. They're anti-heroes, showing what life was like "when punk rock was dangerous". This movie is funny at times, with comic relief in the form of a young Flea (before his stint in the Red Hot Chili Peppers) stealing the show in every one of his scenes. There are others that seem just for shock value, such as in the opening scene when a young child gets mauled by a wild dog. All flaws aside, I think that if you're into punk rock, you should at least check out Suburbia.
Trick or Treat (1986)
quite a surprise
A couple of weeks ago me and a friend spotted this movie in a bargain bin at a Walmart with other movies we've never heard of... seeing Ozzy Osbourne and Gene Simmons on the cover grasped my attention. Being a fan of Ozzy and KISS and reading the back cover of it (which was ridiculously innaccurate) we decided that we had to pay the $6 and view what seemed at the time to be a horrible joke. It actually ended up not being so bad. Gene Simmons has a small role as a radio station DJ who gives the main character his heavy metal idol(who burned to death in a hotel fire at the beginning of the film)'s last album on vinyl. It turns out that when played backwards it gives Eddie, the main character, a message to help him strike back at his tormentors at his school. In the end the evil rock star Sammi Curr comes out of the stereo and into the real world to kill people and only Eddie can stop him. A decent flick if you like heavy metal and 80's movies... it has a funny cameo by Ozzy as a reverend who speaks of the evils of "rock pornography". I rate it ** out of ****