WS Reviews

[RottingCorpse]

So I'm the worst film director ever now, right?

[nacho]

You'll have to box Uwe Boll if you want that title.

[RottingCorpse]

New Review - Film Arcade/Reviews From The Horror Chamber

http://www.filmarcade.net/2008/07/reviews-from-horror-chamber-ruins.html

Women’s Studies
Year: 2008
Directors: Lonnie Martin
Stars: Cindy Marie Martin, Tara Greenwood, Judith O’ Dea
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Ningen Manga Productions
Running Time: 103 Mins
Review Rating: 2 Stars
Official Website http://www.womensstudiesmovie.com/

Women Studies is about a pregnant woman named Mary who is heading back to school with a couple of her friends. Along the way, their car gets stolen. Soon, they meet a group of female students, who offer them to take them back to their dorm, until they can find their car. Mary and her friends discover that the dorm that they were taken to, is part of a girl’s only school. Soon the woman starts to find that the school is hiding a dark secret, as the girls in the school are part of a cult that’s obsessed in killing men. Now, Mary must make a choice, Join them or fight them.

This is one of those films that looked good on paper, as I was looking forward to seeing this film, since seeing the film’s trailer. This had all the making of a good horror film. Good characters, good actors but the major problem with this film was the fact that it had no identity.

Women’s Studies is a film that could have been an effective horror film but it had an identity crises, along the way. Director, Lonnie Martin’s direction was not bad considering the script he written. The only thing that makes this film watchable is the performances here. Lonnie Martin does a good job directing his mostly female cast. He made sure that the chemistry between each of the actors was lively. He also gets good performances from his female leads, as they were entertaining and kept me interested, even though the film’s screenplay wasn’t that great.

Lonnie Martin’s screenplay was one that was not that great. It had a lot of holes. First, all the characters and some of the plot lines felt clichéd. I was going into this film thinking that somehow the characters would be strong; instead they felt like they came out of your average horror film. Some of the scenes in the film also, felt like scenes that you see in your typical horror film, as they were predictable. Finally, the premise of the film had an identity crises in which type of horror, it wanted to be. I didn’t know if this film was supposed to a weird horror film, a slasher film, an occult film or a grindhouse film. It was confusing, as their was no central theme to what the film was trying to a accomplish. It was very distracting as it took away whatever goodwill this film had.

Women’s Studies excels in the acting department while failing in the writing department.

[RottingCorpse]

WS is going to be reviewed by Uncle Bill and the Creepy Kentuckian on the 7/25/08 edition of DeadPit Radio at DeadPit.com. I'm a big fan of these fellas and listen to their show every week. However, they are something of an acquired taste.

You can a little sample and a teaser for our review on their latest MySpace show .

http://www.myspace.com/deadpitradio

The new show usually goes live around 2:00pm EST on Fridays. I'll post with the exact part of the show our review is at once I hear it.

[RottingCorpse]

DeadPit Review is live.

It's an audio interview:  http://www.deadpit.com/shows/72508final.m3u

In case you don't want to listen to the whole show here are the key WS moments:

00:03:30: Intro with over a minute of me being referred to as the "Hands of Stone" for some reason (They're pro wrestling fans, so I guess that's my wrestling handle.) and talking about Judith O'Dea's accent.

02:09:35: The actual review starts.


You can also go to the homepage and save the audio clip if you want to:

http://www.deadpit.com

[nacho]

I hate these guys. 

I'm downloading lots of shit, so the live stream is fucking up.  So I'm downloading the file now...but it's slow from their side!  Jesus.  Anyway, I'll get it in me soon enough.  Is it a good review?  It better be, because I'm getting mad at the bad reviewers.  Jesus...we see Mrs. RC's ass, Garwood's a hot redhead, and Slagle is an Amazon queen.  Shut up haters.

Though, yes, there should have been more nudity.  I should do a GS review along the lines of:  "Not enough tits.  Otherwise, rent it today!"

[RottingCorpse]

You should do that review.

It's our first truly positive review. I'm a big fan of these guys, but as I said before, they're something of an acquired taste.

[nacho]

Ugh, they suck. 

I'm still just at 94% on the download.  And that's after shutting down Azureus and opening up Comcast (newly post-court-ruling opening up their pipes). 

By the way, a quick aside:  I'm so glad Comcast lost their court case on strangling torrents.  Everything's insane now.  I'm downloading in seconds, and uploading a meg a minute.

[RottingCorpse]

Finally . . . a little validation . . .

http://www.pulpmovies.com/reviews/womens-studies

Sam Harris has famously argued that by being accommodating towards moderate religious beliefs, we open the way for more extreme values to insist on the same acceptance. The target of Women’s Studies is a political rather than a religious ideology but fanaticism is fanaticism (and religious fundamentalism has much more to do with political power than with finding faith) and the film tries to explore the way in which the process of radicalisation works.

Mary (Cindy Marie Martin) is a feminist and graduate student in Women’s Studies with a bright political future ahead of her – until she realises that she’s pregnant. This leaves her torn between her political idealism, Catholic guilt and career aspirations and uncertain of what to do next when she, her boyfriend, Zack (James A. Radack) and two friends Beth (Melisa Breiner-Sanders) and Iris (Laura Bloechl) share a car back to college for the start of a new term.

Mary’s car is stolen while the four are en-route and a group of students offer to put them up in their nearby academy temporarily. And then things start to get strange.

The Ross-Prentiss Women’s Academy is a women only institution, and one that emphasises subjects such as women’s studies, business and politics – all of which are studied from an exclusively feminist perspective.

Mary finds herself drawn to the ideals of Judith (Tara Garwood), a senior student at the academy and the prime mover of much that happens here, who quickly ensures that the four friends are separated from each other. Iris, uncertain and more than a little naïve, finds herself under increasing pressure to not only buy into the student ethos, but also to become a student herself. With Zack isolated and, frankly, a bit useless it falls to Beth to see that something is wrong here. Unfortunately, the others aren’t listening…

Women’s Studies is an original take on the Isolated teenagers genre of slasher films and one that does make a serious stab at exploring the sort of exclusionary behaviour, peer pressure, groupthink and bonding rituals that typifies a cult and that can draw someone along the line from idealism to terrorism. It helps that the characters are consistently well rounded and given real depth by a consistently strong cast. These characters – both the protagonists and the academy students – manage to remain both consistent and believable and it is this that gives the film a lot of its strength and makes it such a shocking experience.

In fact, I would have liked to have seen more of the characters – and they were certainly strong enough to have supported some deeper development – and less of the ending, which was longer than it needed to be and tended to over-labour some of the points.

That said, the film does have an excellent coda.

[nacho]

Today's word is "consistent."

[RottingCorpse]

I'll take that over "shitty."

[RottingCorpse]

I somehow feel vinidicated.

http://feministreview.blogspot.com/2008/09/womens-studies.html

Women's Studies
 
Directed by Lonnie Martin
Ningen Manga Productions

"Feminism is not a dirty word."

True, but that may depend on who you're asking. In his latest film, writer/director Lonnie Martin examines the sometimes fine line between liberal and radical feminism and asks the age old question: When two groups of people are similar in their values, why is it common for one group to work towards positive change and another to spiral into terrorism?

On the surface, the answer is simple. People tend to be products of their environment, after all. Cindy Marie Martin's character Mary, the protagonist and liberal feminist of the film, has a solid education, a promising future in politics, and a loving relationship with her boyfriend Zack (James A. Radack), while the "radical" feminists of the Ross-Prentiss Academy appear to have all suffered at the hands of men. When you compare the drastically different experiences of these women, it becomes easier to understand why some people are drawn towards good and others are drawn towards evil. But we can't cast all women in the same light. Environment doesn't always dictate one's path and, as best summed up by Jerry Stiller's character in the 2007 film The Heartbreak Kid: "Some bitches be crazy." True enough.

Women's Studies is, in fact, full of crazy bitches – from the sex- and blood-crazed strippers in the film's opening, to the goddess/witch-like women of the forest. The film is a constant battle between good and evil, and as it progresses it becomes difficult to tell the two apart. At times, the acting appears to be stiff and the viewer may become bogged down with the film's feminist cliché quotes ("girls who go against the grain don't last long here"), and women-centered themes like pregnancy, Freudian vagina talk, and equality in the workplace, which seem to be shoved into the dialogue at times.

Women's Studies is a horror flick, but in a few instances it borders on camp - a nighttime exchange between Zack and Diane (Kelly Slagle) is reminiscent of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the fight scene between Mary and Judith (Tara Garwood) appears to be more amusing than dramatic. A serious discussion about promiscuity ("Men can fuck whoever they want… but when a woman does it, she's called a whore.") appears to only scratch the surface, opting to simply regurgitate this all-too-familiar paradigm without offering any new insight or depth.

That being said, Women's Studies is not without its gems. Judith O'Dea shines as Senator Gayle Hamlin, and Melisa Brenier-Sanders is phenomenal in her portrayal of Beth. Slagle is brilliantly cast for the role of Diane, adding intrigue and edge to the film. Technically, Women's Studies has its strong points; there is interesting use of windows and mirrors, great back and forth montages, and excellent use of music to forward the story. On the whole, this film is a one-of-a-kind story that explores an old question in a new and interesting way and, stiffness aside, the cast is promising and talented.

Indie film enthusiasts will enjoy Women's Studies. It's bloody, it's sexy, and it is, on the whole, an entertaining flick.

Review by Cheryl Santa Maria

[RottingCorpse]

LOL!

http://joblo.com/arrow/dvd_reviews.php?id=2023

I guess you can't please everybody.

[Reginald McGraw]

Much less "reviewers" who don't edit their "reviews".

[Tatertots]

"Constipated feminist serial killers"!