KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Delight Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

chow913 IMDb does it again. They list this film as "1987" despite the fact that the MPAA copyright date clearly says, "XMLXXXV." That's Roman numerals for 1985! Also NONE of the images used they include are actually part of the actual movie! IMDb.com, always trying to outdo Censorpedia's inaccuracy.Now that I've release that from my system, I'd first like to state that I've never been a big fan of going postal films. They never seem bold enough to take a stand as to whether the mass shooter is justified in his actions, tragic victim of circumstances, mentally ill or just plain evil. But 'Blood Wednesday' is just goofy enough to work.Not "goofy" as in a dark comedy, but goofy as in there are A LOT of elements in play here.Our dangerous loner is Harry. Right from the opening scene it's obvious Harry is mentally ill. He looses his job as an auto mechanic after he simply forgets how to put an engine back together. Something he's done many times before.Harry is hospitalized and an attractive doctor Dr. Johnson first speaks with Harry's ex wife whom wants nothing to do with him. So he's left in the custody of his older brother Ben who doesn't really care about him either. Ben just abandons him in an abandoned hotel. It's this old haunted abandoned hotel which gives 'Bloody Wednesday' its real unique edge. The audience themselves doesn't know where reality ends and Harry's insanity begins. Is the hotel really haunted? Is Harry really having an affair with Dr. Johnson? Just because Harry's clearly crazy doesn't mean these things aren't true. The viewer is left to decide for themselves.Most of the ghosts in the hotel are nice. The friendly bellboy warns Harry about a haunted room which stopped being rented out after two suicides. But when Harry actually talks with their ghosts he's discovers their deaths weren't so simple.Harry also talks with his teddy bear whom tells him to kill. When a gang of street thugs break in, Harry holds them at gun point while the bear weighs judgment on whether they should live or die.Harry also starts an affair with Dr. Johnson. Or does he? She denies it. But later lets him sleep on her couch. And Harry's ex wife later says she knows about the affair and wants to blackmail Dr. Johnson. So was it real after all?The same gang of muggers see Harry admiring an Uzi in a store window and ask, "What are you going to do with a machinegun?" Gee what would a mental patient want a machinegun for? Harry answers, "Use it." The thug later steals the Uzi and gives it to Harry just of laughs. Wow, what a nice guy! He steals a $10,000 gun and just gives it away? Harry's first fatality is an elderly security guard whom one of the hotel ghosts says murdered him. Has Harry just committed a cold blooded murder? Or has he merely brought justice to a tormented soul? Harry's next victim is his ex wife, simply because the teddy bear tells him to kill her.The final shooting rampage is so over the top it's comical. Harry merely enters a dinner and fires non stop with his Uzi for three full minutes, releasing hundreds of rounds! He then loads another clip and fires hundreds more! While he's clearly using a 25 round magazine he only reloaded after hundreds of shots! This is just plain silly. Also, since this all takes place over the course of six minutes, why are all the victims just standing there waiting to get shot? There's no rush for the back door or people hiding under tables or pleading for mercy! They just stand still for six full minutes! The ONLY diner who actually does anything is the one man who shoots Harry dead with one head shot from his own gun. Why was he waiting six minutes to shoot back? All in all 'Bloody Wednesday' has its moments. The story is a gripping one you'll want to follow. The big question is why Harry goes postal. He isn't angry at life or society. The climax just seems tacked on as a way to end it with fan service.

BA_Harrison The brain is a complex and fragile organ that can easily develop a fault if not properly maintained, and severe mental illness, if left unchecked, can have dire consequences. In Bloody Wednesday, a nifty low-budget study of a man's descent into violent madness, stressed mechanic Harry blows a brain gasket and is taken into psychiatric care, but is later released into the community under the care of his brother (who is far too busy to give the job the time it really requires).Unfortunately, Harry is still not firing on all pistons: he imagines other people in the vacant hotel where he resides (shades of The Shining here—another great study of insanity); he believes that he has intimate relations with his doctor; he talks to his teddy bear; he is attacked by snakes in his sleep. Harry's fragile state is further exacerbated by a gang of street punks with a score to settle. A complete and utter breakdown is inevitable and with Harry possessing firearms, the outcome is going to be bloody.Given this film's current low rating on IMDb (3.7 out of 10) I can only imagine that viewers were expecting a totally different type of movie (a cheesy 80s slasher perhaps) and reacted negatively out of disappointment. A shame, because behind the somewhat exploitative title and tag-line (You'll pray for Thursday!) lies a really powerful and intelligent film that deserves far better treatment.Raymond Elmendorf's central performance is superb, the actor creating a believable, complex character that deserves the viewer's sympathy—a severely ill person requiring close medical supervision but who has sadly fallen through the cracks of an overworked and under resourced system. Director Mark G. Gilhuis skilfully and sensitively handles Harry's mental disintegration, masterfully blending his fantasy world with reality so that, just as it seems like Harry is making progress, it becomes clear that he is in fact spiralling even further out of control, his delusional state becoming more and more commonplace. The tragedy is heartbreaking.The final act—in which Harry enters a coffee shop armed to the teeth and proceeds to blow away the customers—is suitably brutal, bloody and chilling, a shocking reminder of similar horrific stories that regularly make the news—events that might have been avoided if only the signals had been spotted early enough and the correct course of action taken.

Bloodwank Bloody Wednesday treads some of the territory I value the most in cinema, the mind in disarray, its structure embodied in architecture, the pressures within and without. It also as a social agenda, which matters less to me as a viewer but does have the advantage of being something I agree rather strongly with. It is perhaps unfortunate that it announces itself so boldly with the title and opening text, telling instantly that this is less cinema of exploration than cinema as arrow, clean flight from singing bow to grisly target, but its a well mounted and weird enough affair to mostly forgive its shortcomings. The tale is of Harry Curtis, divorced, perpetual loser, who wigs out one afternoon and loses his job as a mechanic, then rocks up to a church service in the buff and is sent for psychiatric evaluation for his efforts. But even though the doctor has her suspicions, he can't stay and ends up living in an abandoned hotel. Then slowly but surely, things get out of control... The key reference point is The Shining, hotel of grand spaces and dark corridors, menacing history and beguiling phantasms a mirror for the mind, a place to get lost and overwhelmed. But instead of gorgeous decor and Steadicam shots there's a talking teddy bear. And snakes, and ghosts that map to Curtis and his frustrations rather directly, and a street gang who turn up to make his life even harder. Its a curious and somewhat derivative brew with an ending inspired by a real life massacre of a few years previous, but generally decent writing pulls it off in engaging fashion. Characters are nicely defined and there are some interesting and quirky lines it has a writerly feel to it rather than the rather flat point a to point b no fuss no muss approach that may such films take. This is probably due to being written by Philip Yordan, who scored a Oscar win in the 50's and a couple more nominations, and though relegated to the realms of low budget horror by the 80's clearly figured he should still take his best shot at every project. Some of the performances help, Raymond Emendorf has a good blank melancholy that steadily grows to creepy intensity, Pamela Baker concerned and likable as his doctor, and Jeff O'Haco bes as the lead street tough, arrogant and venomous but smart in his way. Other performances are weaker, but it doesn't matter too much, the film moves nicely and delivers when it comes to the crunch, an appropriately bloody showdown with decent body-count. Altogether this isn't a film to set anyones life alight, but its good fun in its little way and a thoroughly agreeable late night time filler. Strong 6/10.

udar55 So reads the tagline for this bizarre thriller, scripted and produced by Academy Award winner Philip Yordan. Raymond Elmendorf stars as Harry, a mechanic who is slowly losing touch with reality. After showing up at church naked, Harry is admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Although deemed a danger to society, he is quickly released due to the overcrowding and moves into a large abandoned hotel. Once inside, Harry suffers torment from figures both real (local street thugs) and imaginary (the hotel's dead occupants). All of this leads him to his breaking point so he decks himself out with firepower and heads to a local diner.No doubt inspired by the 1984 McDonald's massacre in California by James Huberty, BLOODY Wednesday attempts to offer the reasons lurking behind random killing sprees. Unfortunately, it falls back on a series of cinematic psychological clichés, happy to portray Harry as an unprovoked nut/loner who has frequent dialogues with ghosts and his teddy bear (!). Harry may be a Vietnam vet (several moments of war sounds on the soundtrack allude to this), but it is never made clear. The film also offers some criticism of the mental health industry and the police but little time or attention is given to either.The most interesting aspect of BLOODY Wednesday is the alternating between real life and Harry's dream world. One is never quite sure what is happening to Harry is genuine or his imagination. Regrettably, the film lacks the budget, actors and direction to pull this off. Lead Raymond Elmendorf is passable as the tormented Harry, with the rest of the cast being made up of unknowns. The best performance is by Jeff O'Haco (who played one of the Libyans in BACK TO THE FUTURE) as gang leader Animal. This is director Mark G. Gilhuis' only feature (possibly a pseudonym?). Screenwriter Philip Yordan had an amazingly eclectic career, probably the only man to have won an Oscar and work on NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR.