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Released by: After Hours Cinema
Released on: May 22nd, 2007.
Director: Various
Cast: Suzanne Fields, Desiree West, Lisbeth Olsen
Year: Various
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Grindhouse Hostage 2-DVD Collection - Movie Review:
One of the recent offerings from After Hours Cinema's Storefront Feature Series, the Grindhouse Hostage 2-DVD Collection compiles three very different XXX takes on forced sex. For whatever reason, it was a popular theme in seventies smut and there are dozens if not hundreds it not thousands of odd little rough films of this ilk around. The three assembled here are all very different from one another but each one is interesting both as a time capsule and for how it depicts the rougher side of sex.
VIRGIN HOSTAGE:
The first film begins with a cop car on the streets. Another vehicle heads off. Cut to a pair of girls (one of whom is Suzanne Fields from Flesh Gordon) coming out of the 'General Offices and Studios Of The Ice Capades' building as they discuss their weekend plans. Before you know it, they're back at their apartment making phone calls and talking about getting some chicken for dinner.
What the girls don't know is that outside their apartment is the car that the cops were after. It seems three bank robbers are looking for a place to hide out and their apartment is just the spot. At least it'd better be, because their car just died. The three bandits bust into the pad with pistols and a sack full of green, and Suzanne gets gagged. The gang leader, a dude with amazing hair named Danny, tells everyone he's going for a walk. He gives no reason for this, maybe he's out of smokes or just wants some fresh air. Either way, he splits and leaves his partner in crime and younger brother Roger along with the loose cannon that is Willy in charge of the two dames.
With Danny out of the picture, Willy decides it's orgy time though the girls are none too pleased. Suzanne tells Willy that her roommate is a virgin and insists that he take her in her place. Willy forces Roger to get in on the action at gun point and the two spend the rest of the time boffing the ladies with help from a few obvious stunt cock inserts here and there to make up for Willy's rather flaccid performance. Of course, just as the gang bang ends, Danny walks in and he's more than a little pissed off at Willy who responds in kind by forcing him at gunpoint to do the virgin roommate who long since been deflowered thanks to Roger's ramjet. But wouldn't you know it? The friends who were invited over show up with some chicken and Willy forces them to have sex at gunpoint too. Once they're done, Roger pulls a surprise move out of his ass and cold cocks Willy with the butt of a pistol, putting Danny back in the saddle as the head honcho at which point he makes the unusual decision to turn himself and his two cronies in to the cops. What the Hell? The end.
PLAY ONLY WITH ME:
This XXX take off on Clint Eastwood's Play Misty For Me stars Joey Silvera and his magical hair as Richard, a swinging hipster who smokes Colts and drinks red wine. He shows up at his apartment one night with a girl named Kris (who, credited in the liner notes as Dy Ann, sure looks an awful lot like Dianne Galke from Hardgore and Teenage Runaway fame!). After some awkward, rambling small talk, Richard finds a loaded pistol in her handbag. She tells him it's to defend herself from the crazy people that are on the streets these days, he tells her he doesn't think it's necessary. They get to smoochin' and soon she's rubbing him off through his pants. Before you know it, his pants are around his ankles and they're officially getting it on atop his stylish couch while some instrumental country music twangs away in the background. They play around with one another for quite a while until Richard finishes up and makes a deposit.
The next morning he wakes up and she walks in with a bag full of groceries. She wants to make him breakfast in bed, but he tells her to 'stop right there, I don't need an old lady!' She brushes it off in stride and that's that. Later that day, Richard makes a call to his ex-girlfriend, Janet (Desiree West). He apologizes to her, tells her he's done with all those crazy chicks and one night stands and the camera cuts awkwardly to Richard and Janet making sweet, sweet love to the sounds of some horrible lounge music that seemingly goes on forever. While Richard is on top of and inside of Janet, the phone rings. He knocks the receiver to the floor and a very confused Kris listens to Richard bring Janet to the very height of pleasure. Loudly. Rather than hang up the phone, however, Kris starts to get turned on and soon enough she lets her fingers do the walking while listening in on Richard and Janet's bedroom hijinks.
The next day, Janet shows up at Richard's house asking where the other girl is. Richard tries to kick her out but she takes off her clothes and tells him he doesn't know the meaning of the word love. Eventually Kris gets the boot and Richard tells Janet about her. Richard takes off - it seems he's gotta get going - and then we cut to Kris' pad where she's gobbling some dude's wiener. Just then, she makes a call to Richard. He answers and listens in on Kris as she bones her beau, we learn his name is Oscar (John Seeman, also of Hardgore). While she's on the phone, she pulls out her pistol and orders Oscar to lie back. She blows him, the phone right there, then forces him to do her. Richard stays on the phone the entire time, as she tells him she's going to kill Oscar if he hangs up. He hangs on the line and she makes Oscar whack off at gunpoint.
Richard gets off the phone when they finish and tells Janet he can't see her anymore because Kris is too dangerous and that he needs to take care of this first. They go back to his place to think, but soon enough Kris walks in on them, pistol in hand. She handcuffs them and spouts out a bunch of crazy talk about their love. She starts making it with Richard, forcing Janet to watch, while some piano based honky-tonk plays away. She orders Janet to play with herself while she watches them, and then once Richard finishes, Kris moves in on Janet and diddles her with the pistol. Print damage obscures a bit of the film, then the two lovers are wrapped in the sheets and duct taped together as Kris gets dressed and walks out the door. The end.
THE BLUE BALLOON:
The third and final feature is a Danish import from the early seventies and it's the only film in the set that you can take seriously which definitely gives it a creepier, seedier vibe than the two films on the first disc which in this day and age play off as little more than harmless camp.
The film begins with a man and a woman, recently married, fooling around in a field. They finish and he boards a bus as she weeps. Hubby heads off and she winds up meeting up with a tough looking lesbian who gets her drunk and takes advantage of her. She wakes up in a seedy barn where the lesbian pulls off her wedding band and uses a dildo on her. Once she's had her way, the lesbian makes a phone call and before you know it, two seedy dudes have arrived to try a piece of the pie for themselves. First, however, they've got to hand over some cash to the lesbian. It seems our heroine is being sold into prostitution whether she likes it or not. The dudes hold a knife to her throat, bind her and have their way with her then force her to smoke a doobie with them.
The morning after, the lesbian invites a few more guys over who are willing to pay for a crack at her latest discovery. They take pictures of her and rough her up, DP her, and once she's alone, she writes a letter to her husband explaining what's happened to her and why she'll never see him again. Cut to a phallic blue balloon floating through the sky for reasons that are never made quite clear.
Soon enough, the girl is walking the streets. She does two guys in a dirty alley and once they're finished, an obviously intoxicated guy shows up looking for a little fun. Wouldn't you know it, this drunk is her wayward husband but he doesn't recognize her at all. He pays her for oral sex and she cries as she delivers, and once she's finished him off she tells him who she is. He holds her, and showing us that no matter how bad things get life is not without its glimmer of hope now and then, the camera pans over the city as they embrace. Definitely a lot more grim than the first two films, this seedy little import is well made with an interesting cast. The European locations lend it a moderately exotic vibe and the film is a very polished and carefully shot picture that strives, rather successfully, to work as more than simple, base pornography. Lisbeth Olsen of Justine & Juliette stars.
Grindhouse Hostage 2-DVD Collection - DVD Review:
The first two pictures in the set, which make up the entire contents of the first disc, are presented fullframe and that looks to be the proper aspect ratio for each film. The Blue Balloon, surprisingly enough, is presented in anamorphic widescreen framed at roughly 1.78.1.
All three films suffer from print damage, scratches, grain and cigarette burns aplenty. Colors are faded but not completely washed out and sometimes things look a little soft. That said, everything is watchable and the transfers here look no better nor do they look any worse than most of the other un-restored presentations of old, obscure porno films from the seventies.
After Hours Cinema has placed an AHC bug on each of the three films in the set though thankfully it's not there constantly, simply appearing in the bottom right corner two or three times for a few seconds during each movie. Not ideal, but it could have been worse. An After Hours Cinema copyright notice has also been added to the title screen of each of the three features.
The English language Dolby Digital Mono soundtracks are full of hiss, pops and some funky levels. That said, most of the time you can hear everything easily enough. Far from reference quality, these films don't sound good but even when they were brand new odds are they weren't sterling examples of the use of sound in modern cinema.
Each disc starts off with the same goofy little animated After Hours Cinema cartoon promo. Aside from that, disc one is bare bones. Disc two contains trailers for 42nd St. Pete's 8mm Madness, 42nd St. Pete's Stars Of The 70s, 42nd St. Pete's Eurotrash Collection, College Coed Corruption, Sexorcism, Grindhouse Honeymoon Collection, Diary Of A Nymph Collection, Chic 69, Les Chic, Sex On Wheels Collection, Deviate Sex Thrills and last but not least, Gunilla.
Inside the keepcase is a booklet of liner notes courtesy of the mysterious 'After Hours Collector' which gives a decent plot synopsis of each movie and which points out a few of the more recognizable cast members. There isn't a lot of information out there on many of these films so much of this writing simply elaborates on a few of the more curious moments contained in each film. Everything is written with a good sense of humor and the addition of a couple of ad mats is a nice touch.
Grindhouse Hostage 2-DVD Collection - The Final Word:
The transfers are rough around the edges but fans of vintage smut films know to expect this going in so it stings a little less. As far as the films go, they're not for all tastes but those with a fascination for taboo seventies roughies should enjoy this trio of low budget schlockers. The run the gamut from goofy to surprisingly intense and a few notable seventies performers show up in interesting roles.