Bloody Mallory (2002) Movie Review

Bloody Mallory is a 2002 action horror film, a Franco-Spanish co-production directed by Julien Magnat, written by Magnat and Stéphane Kazandjian. It stars Olivia Bonamy, Adrià Collado, Jeffrey Ribier, Laurent Spielvogel, Valentina Vargas, Julien Boisselier, and Thylda Barès. The film is also scored by prolific Japanese movie and anime music composer Kenji Kawai. Inspired by the likes of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, Xena: Warrior Princess and the entire underground geek fandom of the late nineties and early two thousands.

Mallory is the leader of an anti-paranormal commando group that consists of a child with telepathic powers, a drag queen explosives expert named Vena Cava and a government agent named Durand. When a group of mysterious vampires kidnap the pope, Mallory is tasked to rescue him in order to save mankind.

This is a highly kinetic filmic experience and with a very playful and juvenile energy that never becomes tiresome. A fun romp from start to finish, a film that has one foot in the anime/manga storytelling and stylistic flourishes and another one in the unleashed music video editing and montage. However, none of this means that the film is empty nor that it has zero substance as the characters are all original and fresh, they have very well defined personalities and roles, and they also have some engaging conflicts as the script takes some very sharp turns that go to some very distinctive places. Aside from the frenetic action, there are a lot of poignant moments that open and close the film to give it more tonalities. This insane storyline actually grabs you and takes itself with enough seriousness to never treat it as disposable nonsense, it's more than a one joke sketch.

I will say they also have some great production values for its low budget. The action itself is very lively and well constructed, it takes more than one trick from both Hong Kong and Japanese action cinema, which helps to make things more dynamic. You end up liking the world they constructed because it's so lighthearted and creative. Its aesthetic incorporates very striking anime-like stylizations and energetic fight choreographies as mentioned before, but some other scenes have that European flavor that achieve a lyrical feeling and look.

Highly recommended for people looking for a delightful horror flick with a female action protagonist. There aren't many of those and this one is a pleasure.

Project A-ko Versus: Gray Side/Blue Side (1990) Anime OVA Series Review

Project A-ko Versus (Project A-ko: Uncivil Wars) is a 1990 action sci-fi anime OVA mini-series divided in two parts: Grey Side and Blue Side and is a reboot of the Project-Ako film and OVA series. It was directed by Project A-ko's original director Katsuhiko Nishijima and written by newcomers Yuji Kawahara and Shôichi Tsuji. The cast includes Miki Itô, Emi Shinohara, Michie Tomizawa, Kazuo Oka and Tesshô Genda. These OVA'S are basically unrelated in plot and characters but they do retain the same designs and part of the energy of the original, transplanting the girls into a sci-fi setting.

In an undetermined intergalactic setting, A-ko and B-ko are two space bounty hunters who catch giant creatures in a desert planet. Fate has in store for them more than what they can chew as they find C-ko, a small princess kidnapped by space pirates. What begins as a simple crime turns out to be a menace for the universe as a powerful sorceress possesses C-ko's body and gets her evil plans going.

Continuing the Project Ako franchise by making a straight science fiction story with little to no resemblance to the original concept was quite a wild move on their part because this really could have been titled just about anything else and it still would have made sense and be understood, it didn't need to have any connection to the Ako series whatsoever. Having said that, what we do get is quite cool on its own. Yeah, it stands apart from the franchise but fits perfectly into the landscape of anime shows with female friendships at their core, having A-ko and B-ko be more similar to Kei and Yuri from Dirty Pair than their original incarnations. C-ko is also shown as an actual small child which makes her usual behaviour make more sense even if she is dumbed down and aged down explicitly in the story. The three are cute together and have some hilarious moments.

The new villains are very cool, particularly Liza Chichi, who engages in awesome combats with A-ko, who still has super human abilities in this version but not in an overpowered way as she has to put up a fight against Liza. The action sequences are expertly crafted and dynamically boarded with very smooth animation once again. The change of setting makes things be a bit more generic, we see space shuttles and some typical desolated planets instead of the high school, so that type of contrast gets mostly lost on the change of setting but we do get some notable fight scenes sprinkled with some spicy touches, so it's a bit faithful to the spirit of Project A-ko in that regard.

Blue Side has a lot of great moments, but the set up of Gray Side I found to be the most engaging, especially because it all seemed to build up to something outstanding or at least an exciting climax with a lot more action and stakes, and while we do get a good ending I think the writers were hoping for more OVA episodes that never came because the way these conflicts are resolved don't really close much and it all feels too scrambled and loose to be a proper ending. I could see the rivalry between A-ko and the blondie get more complex or reach a more impactful breaking point if they had gotten more episodes.

It's overall a very highly recommended OVA series but don't expect to come back to the same characters in the Project A-ko saga, because you are not, you are gonna be exposed to a brand new universe that is a lot of fun on its own. 

Bimini Code (1983) Movie Review

Bimini Code is a 1983 action adventure movie directed by Barry Clark and written by Gabrielle Rivera and Barry Clark. It stars Vickie Benson, Kristal Richardson, Rosanna Simanaitis and Frank Alexander. It's one of those movies that spawned after the success of Indiana Jones at the box office that features treasure hunters, mixed with some old school sea adventure but with female leads. The film is now sort of obscure, rarely seen and badly reviewed; it's hardly a popular flick and the available copies are of bad quality.

Stacy (Vickie Benson) and Sheryl (Kristal Richardson) are two thrill-seeking adventurers who are tasked with finding a kidnapped boy, they realize what's at stake when evil rich countess Magda von Cress searches for Mayan power stones at the Bermuda Triangle.

While this is a satisfying flick, the procedures are mostly TV-level in their execution with very crude shots lacking style and a static camera work that reveal the background of the filmmakers but also give the film a simplistic and precise nature that strips down to the bare essentials the elements that it features, focusing on the characters and the plot.

The storytelling is a bit wonky because of the way the film is structured it presents itself more like a random episode of an on-going TV series rather than a proper movie with introductions and character moments or arcs for them, it unfolds as such through most of it as it has very little regard for tapping into the dramatic potential of the scenario, instead just presenting some action sequences and brief moments of intrigue strung together without much to really glue them together as a story and even less emotional substance. Maybe that's why it had a small lifetime on TV or home video since it barely registers in your mind after watching it.

The action is swift and well done, the constant array of fun and cheesy comic book peril sequences involving scuba diving around sharks and karate fights do give the movie not only a charming aura of lite entertainment but also add to the fast pace and the easygoing attitude it has and that the carefree characters also embody. The main girls are lovable and have some nice moments as friends and partners, they have a solid bond and chemistry but it's all obscured by the rather pedestrian script. The cheesy villain is too over-the-top but I honestly loved that about her. We don't have enough malicious ladies with eyepatches doing evil schemes anymore.

Not a hidden gem but an easygoing and watchable piece of obscure adventure cinema that can only be recommended to B-movie fans who wanna get into some uncharted territory.