Absolute Evil (2009)

German film director Ulli Lommel dedicates this abortive flick to his mentor, the well-regarded Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Though Fassbinder is probably turning somersaults in his grave at the idea of being associated with this cinematic tripe, the dedication is instructive in knowing where Lommel's head is at. Lommel, who has operated out of the US for decades, continually tries to gain some recognition in his own country as a genuine auteur. But the Germans think he is a joke. ABSOLUTE EVIL absolutely will not help his reputation, either, which has bottomed out after he aggressively directed a rash of poor horror movies, such as KILLER NURSE, DUNGEON GIRL, THE TOMB, and GREEN RIVER KILLER.ABSOLUTE EVIL is the work of an artist who has no original ideas and so imitates what he believes will sell -- a bit of horror here, a bit of western "homage" there, and other bits and pieces of ideas from other movies. The film, which looks like every other Lommel movie and is shot on a camcorder -- is a junker of a movie that ka-clumps along in tiresome fashion, made with the conviction of people who possibly had a large mortgage to pay off. The movie may attract you because of David Carradine's presence in an undistinguished cameo role.In this revenge story, a young woman chases down the killers of her car mechanic father with the help of a boyfriend, who may have helped the killers.Lommel also wrote the banal dialog that is painfully under-rehearsed by the actors, and prior to its screening at the Berlin festival, he touted this production as more substantial than the progressively awful wave started in 2004 with ZODIAC KILLER. However, even with a little extra money in the budget, Lommel defaults to his trademark poor camera-work, one-take direction, terrible acting, slow pacing, and disjointed editing. In the style of all Lommel films, footage is repeated ad naseum and to the point of distraction. Worse of all, he gets a lousy performance out of Carradine! What a sad waste this is.

Maybe not for this film, but certainly for KILL BILL and KILL BILL 2. But even in this one, just watch him do his thing. There's nobody out there who can match his skills, maybe Al Pacino, maybe Sean Penn, but boy, what a revelation this man is. He lives his part, at least in this film, he IS Raf McKane, leader of the 17th Street gang, he breathes Raf, suffers Raf. His quiet anger, his reservoir of emotions and little things he does. Acting classes of the world, study this man! Maybe it was the rapport the director had with him, I don't know, but Carradine's getting better and better with age, like a great wine. It must be in his DNA. have you ever seen his dad, John Carradine, in John Ford's "Stagecoach"? But David's a renegade, and Hollywood doesn't like rebels. Just look at what they did with Brando. or Chaplin. Or Orson Welles for heaven's sake!When will la-la land wake up to reality and honor one of their best? When he's dead? Is that what it's going to take? Give me a break. Honor the guy now while he's still alive and kicking! And go check out Absolute Evil. It's intriguing, entertaining and different.

The film played at Berlinale film festival in Berlin and the premiere was on February 8th. I got the ticket to the premiere the day before and later I heard that the screening was sold out!It's a nice movie about love, hate, forgiveness and murder. The main roles are played by new talents like Carolyn Neff and Rusty Joiner, but there is also 'veteran actors' like Ulli Lommel, Chris Kriesa and David Carradine. I think Lommel makes his best performance in years plus Kriesa and Carradine were great choices to their roles such as Neff and Joiner.I hope it will be released on DVD soon, so I can buy it!

I saw "Absolute Evil' at Berlin International Film Festival in Zoo Palast theater. The premiere and the next screening of the movie were sold out and it's one of the biggest theaters - if not the biggest - in Berlin. It had a great review on a German magazine so I wanted to see it and I was lucky enough to get the ticket."Absolute Evil' is simply the best film Ulli Lommel has made since 1980s. And the important thing is that it proofs that the director still has his talent after all these serial killer movies and everything.The movie tells a story about Savannah (Carolyn Neff) who's boyfriend Cooper (Rusty Joiner) gets killed after she finds out who Cooper really is. She wants to find out the killer of Cooper, and things leads to the old leader of 17th street gang, Raf (David Carradine). I don't want to tell too much about the movie, so that's all I say about the story. There is some great performances by the actors. Neff is beautiful, believable and good in her first big film role, Joiner gives a touching performance and the "old stars" Christopher Kriesa, Ulli Lommel and David Carradine are as good as always. It's nice to see that Carradine has made at least one good movie after "Kill Bill" films.It's a must see and it was b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l on the big screen in a theater with 1,000 people.