Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a horror comedy from 1992. That movie is "The Vagrant".
Now I'll be honest with you, guys, I don't really know much about the movie itself, but I'm actually really looking forward to watching this one. Part of the reason is because of it's casting. I mean, you have people such as Bill Paxton and Michael Ironside as the main stars. So it does have the potential to be really funny. However, I also know that just because you have two really good stars in your film doesn't automatically make it a good movie.
Plotwise, I don't really know much about it. All I could gather is that our main character, who is played by Bill Paxton, is being driven insane by, who I'm going to assume, Michael Ironside's character. What exactly he does here to Mr. Paxton, I don't know yet. However, I'm curious all the same, so I may as well just shut up and see what this movie has to offer here. Like I said, I'm hoping for it to be really good, though I don't know if it will be or not. The only way I'm gonna know for sure is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "The Vagrant".
7 minutes later
So this woman, who's been showing Krakowski the house that he could be living in, suddenly just jumped on him after admitting that he's attractive that she wanted to have sex with him until he finally caved in and said yes, he'll buy the house. I'm gonna tell you guys, if a woman ever did that to me, I would probably never want to step foot in that house ever again. But that's probably just me.
14 minutes later
Wait, so Graham's response to the Vagrant just kinda hanging around near where he's at is for him to install an alarm system all over his home. And how he's able to pay for all this is by taking a second mortgage out of his home. Why the fuck would you do that?! And I should mention that it's only been about a couple of days since he's moved in to his new home, so for him to take a second mortgage out of his home just for one homeless guy is just stupid on a whole host of levels.
16 minutes later
So, guys, we're getting another one of Graham's paranoid dreams where, this time, his friend, Edie, is getting humped by the Vagrant. And as strange as that is, what's even more stranger is that Graham's expressions here make him look like Jim Carrey for some reason. I don't know why I thought that, it just kinda came to me, you know?
8 minutes later
OK...so, the old woman's fingers that were reported to be cut from her body after she was murdered from earlier is now inside the box of chocolates that were a present to Edie. Oh, and the Vagrant that was hiding in Graham's basement now just left after taunting Graham. I mean, it's certainly possible that he is the killer, but I'm still not totally sure just yet because it's all still kinda vague. But I'm still curious to see where this is all going.
9 minutes later
And now the moving lady who sorta had a thing for Graham way early on has her head and feet stuffed inside Graham's refrigerator. That is...certainly fucked up. Not sure exactly how that got all in there, but still, definitely kind of a fucked up way to die.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "The Vagrant". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Wow, so, where to start with this...? Well, earlier, I did say that I wanted this movie to be really good. And you know what? It really *is* good. I cannot begin to tell you guys how much I enjoyed this movie.
Why don't we just start off proper here by talking about the writing. Now admittedly, this story is kind of paper thin. And it mainly has to do with Graham being paranoid that some homeless man, AKA the Vagrant, is hanging around his house. Well, he's actually across the street from where Graham's home is at and he's just doing his own business. But anyway, Graham's paranoia comes to a point where he suspects the guy is dangerous because he's just constantly around him all the time, whether that's having odd dreams about the Vagrant, or he's just possibly somewhere in the house for real. So he tries to have a security system installed in his home by taking a second mortgage out of it, which I said was stupid earlier and that holds true, because he's in financial debt now and he has to pay it off somehow. However, the latter is not really much of an issue later on.
So, you'd probably think that you wouldn't get much of a story out of this concept, what with it being kinda shallow and all. But honestly, that's not the case. Because what makes it so interesting is that the movie keeps you guessing on where it's going to go next. I myself had many theories on what direction this movie was going to go and where it might possibly end up at. And just when you think you might have the story figured out, it still keeps you guessing on where it'll end up going. That's how fascinating the writing is in this film, guys. And also, since it's a horror comedy, I should let you guys know that the humor here is really solid, too. There were a couple of moments in this movie that really got me laughing, which I honestly wasn't expecting, partially because the last movie I watched was considered a dark comedy was "Save The Green Planet!". A movie that tried to be funny and yet didn't really succeed in that area. This movie, however, knows that it's a horror comedy. And yes, it's also dark, too. But unlike "Save The Green Planet!", where it just drifted off into becoming pitch black in it's tone, this movie is aware that it's still a comedy and, like I said, it knows when to have fun with itself.
I suppose I should probably talk about the one minor gripe that some people might have about the movie. And most of that involves our main character, Graham. See, as I mentioned earlier, he acts super paranoid throughout a good chunk of the film and it really boils down to how much of his paranoia can you tolerate? I imagine some people might see it as kind of an issue because it makes the character seem rather unlikable. And while I will admit that it could be seen as something of an issue, I really don't think that's gonna be a big deal in the long run, because Graham is very likable, despite all the paranoia he goes through in this movie. And you really do care for him as he tries to find a way out of his horrible situation. And personally speaking, I think it makes the character stand out in a very positive way because Graham just has a ton of personality to his character.
Other characters like the two police officers, one of them being Michael Ironside, going after Graham are also likable, too. Everyone else here is also likable in their own way, even though they don't really appear in the movie for too long. And I'm even going include our Vagrant, because even though he is really creepy and weird, it was obviously done intentionally and it makes him stand out in a very positive way. So, overall, guys, the writing in this movie is very sharp and really funny, too. And just to add on to all that, the acting in this movie is great. Everybody here turns in a fantastic showing, with the two standouts being Bill Paxton as our main character, and Michael Ironside. The latter, mainly because the man can take just about anything that's given to him and he can make it work. Well, apart from his shallow and disappointing performance in "Stan Lee's The Mighty 7", but I'm not gonna let that one blemish get in the way for how awesome the man can be. And as for Bill Paxton, well, the man knows how to be paranoid and awkward at the same time. He is great here, and it's probably one of his best performances I've seen from him in years. So that definitely counts for something.
Special effects are also really good, too. Admittedly, I don't really know how much of a budget this movie was working with, but I'm going to take a guess here and say that it was on the lower side of things. And if that's the case, then they definitely worked wonders with it's potentially low budget. Blood effects here are really good, as is the costuming. The makeup effects on our homeless vagrant is also really good, too. There is quite a bit of graphic detail on his face, such as one of his eyes being completely blank. Now I don't mean that he lost an eye or anything, I mean they are white blank. Now whether's that's actually his real eye or just part of the makeup effects, it's still looks really good overall.
Camerawork here is good. Lighting here is lit very well. The sound-mixing is great. Our score here is, admittedly, not all that great. The score here was composed by a guy named Christopher Young. And he has done a *ton* of music work for a lot of movies, both well-known and indie films. And I do mean a lot, too. Most of them I haven't seen before, but I can say that he's still working today, which is really cool to know. But going back on subject, this definitely isn't one of his best scores. It's just a little bit on the weak side here. At least, for me it is.
So overall, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "The Vagrant"? Oh hell yes, guys, I most certainly can recommend this film to you guys. If you're a fan of horror comedies, and you're looking for another one to add to the collection, I would totally add this one to it, because this is definitely a really good horror comedy and I'm definitely gonna be revisiting it again sometime soon. I really enjoyed this movie, guys, and I'm totally happy that I was able to watch it for this series. Now, I'm kinda in the mood to watch another horror comedy of sorts. I've got a couple of options here, but I think I'm gonna go and watch "Frankenhooker" again. I just saw it on my DVD collection as soon as I looked at it, so I'm gonna go do that next after I get done with this review.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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