Post by Xч on Jul 9, 2009 20:14:54 GMT -5
Starring William Smith, David 'Shark' Fralick
Directed by William Lustig
This G.I.-zombie tale, smartly scripted by exploitation auteur Larry Cohen (It's Alive, God Told Me To) and directed by William Lustig (Maniac, Vigilante), straddles the line between antiwar satire and slasher-movie silliness. American soldier Uncle Sam, as he's known to his hero-worshipping young nephew, is a bullying homicidal misfit too ornery to die. His bloodied and burned corpse, sent home from Kuwait for burial, crawls out of his casket and declares war on punks, crooked politicians, draft dodgers, and pretty much anyone who wanders into his path. There are some interesting ideas floating around--a pointed commentary on the attraction of violence under the flag of patriotism, an undercurrent of psychosis and sadism in Sam's home life, and a clever twist on all-American iconography--which get lost in the Fourth of July reign of terror. Body-count fans will appreciate victims hacked with hatchets, cleavers, and garden shears, teenagers buried alive, and a severed head found smoking in a barbecue pit. David "Shark" Fralick stars as Sam, with Isaac Hayes as a crippled Korean War vet and small roles by cult stars Bo Hopkins, Timothy Bottoms, P.J. Soles, and Robert Forster, a smarmy governor given a fireworks sendoff he'll never forget.
Does Uncle Sam join the ranks of the revered and the repulsive? Sadly, the answer is no. He doesn't measure up to Norman Bates or the Evil Deadites as a long-lasting horror Lothario. His methods are too mired in his own overt devotion to move beyond the boundaries of his story and eclipse other examples of eeriness. Thankfully, William Lustig's craft behind the camera, matched with the professionalism of his performers, makes Uncle Sam the film a very fun, very fundamental scary movie. It doesn't break new ground or reinvent the genre. Indeed, it hardly delivers the shivers at all. But in the long line of attempts to recall the early days of mad slasher cinema, this semi-silly statement shows just how flawed flaccid flops like Jack Frost and Redneck Zombies really are.
Sam doesn't get to join Jason and Freddy, or even the Leprechaun and the Critters, as an example of everlasting fear. But at least this movie plays fair with its audience.Uncle Sam is indeed a decent monster movie.
