Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- A Stranger in the Woods 2024

- Underground 2023

- A Nashville Wish 2024

- molkipolki 2023

- The Ghost is a Lie - Take Two 2024

- Return to the Theatre of Terror 2023

- The Ghost is a Lie - Take One 2023

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

Happy Times
Nitra'e Besmachot

Israel / USA / Italy 2019
produced by
Tomer Almagor, Paola Porrini Bisson, Michael Mayer, Gabrielle Almagor (executive), Richard Bisson (executive), Erri De Luca (executive), Guy Ayal (co) for Oh!Pen Productions, M7200 Productions, Urban Tales Productions
directed by Michael Mayer
starring Michael Aloni, Liraz Chamami, Iris Bahr, Alon Pdut, Stéfi Celma, Ido Mor, Guy Adler, Shani Atias, Daniel Lavid, Mike Burstyn, Kevin Thoms, Rigo Obezo, Sophia Santi, Griffin Kramer, Lily Chesla Torres, Jackson Lewis Torres, Mik Sapir-Kastelman
written by Guy Ayal, Michael Mayer, music by Guy Ayal

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Once a year, Sigal (Liraz Chamami) invites her Jewish friends and family over to a Shabbat dinner to her fancy home in the Hollywood Hills. But while these occasions are less than "happy" at the best of times, this year they're under a particularly bad star: It really already starts in the driveway when Michael (Michael Aloni), actor on the verge of a breakthrough, has a a run-in with young but cocky Maor (Daniel Lavid) that almost gets physical. It's also a bit of a scandal that Michael brings his new girlfriend Aliyah (Stéfi Celma), who might be the nicest person and also good-looking without outshining the others, but she's also non-Jewish, and black even, which doesn't sit well with the prejudices of some of those in attendance. In the meantime, one of the guests, Ilan (Guy Adler), tries to get Sigal's husband Yossi (Ido Mor), to invest into one of his projects, and won't just accept that Yossi tells him how hopeless it is, and digs up dirt on Yossi as payback. Dinner itself ends in a fistfight where Michael is knocked out. In the excitement that follows, young Moar manages to catch Sigal alone in the kitchen, and he confesses his love to her, and they start to make out ... and are caught by Yossi, who beats Maor half to death - when Michael arrives on the scene with a gun, wanting his revenge on those who've wronged him. And in the skerfuffle that follows, Moar is accidently shot dead. Everybody's understandably shocked, but only Aliyah wants to call the police, but her phone is crashed. Instead of properly reporting what has been happening, the whole party is busy sweeping the whole affair under the carpet - but that attempt only leads to a freeforall, with Moar not remaining the sole fatality for long. And things don't at all slow down when Yossi's rabbi (Mike Burstyn) shows up, pretty much insisting to be fed ...

 

Now the first few scenes of Happy Times are deceivingly unpromising (and very probably intentionally so), as they have a soap opera feel to them with only slight satyrical touches and little indication where the film might lead to - and that's really part of the genius of this movie, as at least part of its powerful impact comes from its impact that leads from a bit indistinguishable soap to macabre sitcom to violent and bloody comedy in a narratively logical and even subtle manner, where events really grow out of one another and little seems to happen just on the screenwriter's whim. And add to that a directorial approach really in sync with these narrative tactics, and a strong cast that mostly plays it straight, and you've got yourself a bloody hilarious and hilariously bloody movie.

 

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find Happy Times
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find Happy Times here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find Happy Times at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!