11 Jun 2011

Axe - Lisa's Review


*** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***

I won't go through a synopsis of the movie or into any detail about anything that happens. I'll let you find that out for yourself, but I may refer to specific scenes, so if you REALLY don't like to know anything AT ALL about movies you watch, maybe best not to read on.


This movie is another one where I struggle to understand the placement on the infamous list. Maybe in the 70's when it was made, certain aspects of it were shocking, but now, with a few tiny cuts you could probably put this on the TV on a Sunday afternoon alongside Miss Marple.


For the most part I enjoyed this movie, but not because it contained any kind of tension, intrigue, horror or gore, but because it was SO bad. I know there are better of these 'so bad its good' movies out there, but some of the dialogue really had me giggling and even reaching for the remote to hear it again... I give you one such line when a poor unfortunate sod decides he would rather take his chances jumping out a window than with the 'bad guys' ..."Why did he do that? Its 12 floors?... "Nah its not. Its only 9!"... Lol. I kid you not. Excellent, and said in such a dead pan manner.

The scene this is taken from also should cause much merriment. The 'victim' is beaten mercilessly with a plastic, ginger, very ugly doll... inspiration for Chucky perchance? ;op

Another line which was just plain bad was when they approached a store clerk with a large melon and delivered the wonderful... "Ladies sure got some nice melons"... we were later 'delighted' to a view of these aforementioned melons (by way of a closeup with nothing else in the shot) being swilled in fizzy coke.... obviously for the males amongst the viewers, but sorry lads, the bra does not come off.

The movies main bad guys sometimes reminded me of the characters in Reservoir Dogs, or maybe thats what they would aspire to be if they weren't so bloody stupid and lacking in any kind of physical strength (proven by the ability of a young girl to dispense with them with so little effort!)

Back to how the movie was put together and we return to my irritating soundtrack fixation and this one does not disappoint on that front. Gone is the Bontempi organ, only to be replaced by the most irritating drum beats you're ever likely to inflict on your ears. Eventually you don't notice thankfully, but to start with it takes some getting used to.

What I did find though is that the attention to detail paid to the sound on this movie during murder scenes was quite impressive. Blades slicing through flesh and sawing noises were very distinct and realistic (well ...what I'd imagine to be realistic, having never sawed anyone with a razor).

The main heroine/intentional victim in this movie is the superbly named Lisa. In fact this film is also known as 'Lisa, Lisa' in some places. She is portrayed as the typical innocent, backward little girl, all complete with cute little virginal white dress and frilly cuffs. However this notion is quickly squashed by her deft ability to behead a chicken for her invalid grandfathers dinner. This girl doesn't mind a bit of blood... just as well really....

I'm unsure as to whether her acting was completely wooden and deadpan or her character was so emotionally 'dead' from her banal existence of caring for her paralyzed grandfather that she had simply lost any reactionary ability.

This movie is tagged as 'rape' and 'revenge'. Thats pretty much all you need to know to understand the premis and neither of the 2 subjects are portrayed in a particularly horrific manner, leaving me confused as to where the prosecution arose from...

The only other comment I would make about this movie would be to say there are several obvious attempts at arty shots. Shots which no doubt snotty little media students and people who think too much about these kind of things would read all sorts into... (a tie in the bath dripping with blood after a murder, paintings on the wall of very innocent and cheerful subjects being flashed in during the movies main murder scenes). I just don't have the inclination to try to dissect what they wanted us to interpret these as, but they seemed kind of out of place in this kind of movie to me.

In conclusion, nothing to write home about, but several 'funny' scenes. Won't disturb or horrify you. Its only just over an hour long so it won't take too much time out of your day.

Gore: 2/10 (there barely was any)
So bad its good score: 4/10
Overall score: 4/10

I'll leave you with one thought after watching this movie... 'Don't mess with Lisa!' ;op

Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the "Reader Reviews" post for this movie.

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