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  • Originally posted by Barry M View Post
    I laughed at the 90210 look when I first saw it,
    The slightly unreal, soap star good looks of the cast is disconcerting. There should be some sort of study into the difference between movie star good looking and soap star good looking. I don't know what it is, but I know it when I see it.

    Love Black Book.
    "Never let the fact that they are doing it wrong stop you from doing it right." Hyman Mandell.

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    • The Silence of the Lambs - Movies don't get much better than this. It's a masterpiece. I've seen this several times over the years but I noticed a little detail that I had never noticed before: during the scene where Buffalo Bill is doing his infamous dance, I had always assumed he was wearing a wig - he's actually wearing a woman's scalp with the hair still attached!
      Why would anybody watch a scum show like Videodrome? Why did you watch it, Max?

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      • Alligator
        The Executioner-Sonny Chiba & Teruo Ishii bring the juvenile fun

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        • Sworn to Justice - I thought I wanted to see Cynthia Rothrock in a sexier role - turns out it was weird. She's actually sexier in her regular roles kicking the shit out of everyone. Here she's put into awkward sexy scenes that made me more uncomfortable than anything else and the brief shot of her boob was akin to accidentally seeing one of Chuck Norris' balls hanging out of his shorts or something. Obviously Rothrock's bare breast is certainly better than that, but you get my point. I didn't like seeing her in cheesy sex scenes or dancing around in lingerie with her botched boob job. Other than that, I enjoyed the action scenes and the unintentional laughs. One scene I loved is when Rothrock is acting opposite Brad Dourif and she delivers a particularly bad line with real gusto: it looks like Dourif is trying really, really hard not to burst out laughing.

          El violador infernal - This is pretty crazy and amusing for awhile, but for some reason, the best scene is the very first rape/killing. It's an amazing sequence and no scene after it comes close. It should've been a set-piece in the middle or something. It's a repetitive movie that's basically the same sequence played out in 4 or 5 different scenarios. It got a bit boring. However, there's a rape scene around the hour mark that is absolutely vile and almost unwatchable.
          Why would anybody watch a scum show like Videodrome? Why did you watch it, Max?

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          • The Indian Tomb 1959. Fritz Lang directs a tale about Maharajas, exotic dancers, secret tunnels full of lepers and palace intrigue. I've known about this film for years because Debra Paget (sporting the best body 1959 had to offer) performs a snake charming dance that is much shared in burlesque circles. As often as I've seen this scene though I'd never seen the movie.

            It has its charms. An international coproduction with some extravagant sets and simple plotting. Theres a lot black face and ultimately the very-risque-for-its-time dance is still the best bit:

            "Never let the fact that they are doing it wrong stop you from doing it right." Hyman Mandell.

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            • ​ exit wounds (2001)

              this has to be one of the best seagal silly walks ever, I could watch that opening scene over and over again and still piss my pants, it's hilarious! other than that this has aged horribly. what was this shit about smuggling heroin in t-shirts?! dmx is playing a smart tech billionaire whizkid, who is secretly going undercover as a tough ass drug lord? ... early 2000s, bro.

              talking about shit that wouldn't fly anymore today: the movie literally ends with tom arnold and anthony anderson improvising graphic anecdotes about masturbation and defecation as the end credits roll ... a fitting end for seagals last big hollywood blockbuster swan song!

              ​​

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              • Don't Worry Darling: Considering that it was flat out not-very-good Stepford Wives has a weird way of continuing to pop up in pop culture. There was the remake with Nicole Kidman. There was Black Stepford Wives with Get Out and now there's Don't Worry Darling which is another retread.

                This had a reputation of being Not As Good As Hyped before it was even released. There was all tthe Wilder-Flo-LeBoueff drama. Styles magnificiently spitting on Chris Pine and all the rest of it. So for a film the studio would have Had Hopes For it slunk it's way into cinemas in very sheepish fashion, got eviscerated in the reviews, and then slunk right the fuck back out again.

                I submit it's nowhere near as bad as everyone says. What I expected to be the disappointment of the film was the reveal of what is actually happening in this small town where Something is clearly happening. I expected a cheap excuse and then a rush for the exit. Instead what you're given is kind of thematically interesting and, like a Dudes rug, really ties the room together. It's a look at that 50s prefeminism idea of a mans world, that looks alright for a woman too, if you ignore the lack of opportunity for all.

                Which is not to say that it's very good. It has the look of being written by an instinctive writer who never came back to do a second draft. There's so many things left hanging in this film. Things that you expect to have explained and then they're just dropped. Like the writer left himself a lot of threads to draw on in case he needed them, decided that he didn't and then didn't go back to clean up the mess. For example our leading lady is drawn into the desert by the sight of a crashing airplane. Out There she comes across the source of all the mystery. She doesn't come across the plane. Why was there a plane crash? How does it tie in? Mysteries! Turns out it doesn't tie into anything. We never see the crash site and it's never explained and it was just a really weird excuse for the writer to get our leading lady trekking across the desert.

                Strange filmmaking...
                Last edited by Dom D; 02-14-2023, 04:39 PM.
                "Never let the fact that they are doing it wrong stop you from doing it right." Hyman Mandell.

                Comment


                • Babylon: come on.... what the fuck was that?!

                  It's rare that a movie actually makes me angry. Last year broke records and did it to me twice. 2022 already delivered us Everything Everywhere All At Once. I marked that film down as the worst of the year and top 10 worst all time but- dear god- this piece of shit may just have it beat.

                  Completely incoherent, rabidly self important, 16 hours long. I just don't know what this film is about or how it happened. As disastrous as it was, I kind of get how EEAAO happened. Someone saw Ricky and Morty and thought they could rip it off for a feature and mash it up with some Hong Kong action. Fuck you but fair 'nough. This film though feels like it's made on the fly by a coked up, overly praised director just shouting at his cast to do something and, when in doubt, do one of those shots where the camera dolly's down a trumpet because we've never seen that before.

                  Id like to give it a coherent review but theres no reasonable direction to approach it from so Ill just say, exterminate all the brutes.
                  "Never let the fact that they are doing it wrong stop you from doing it right." Hyman Mandell.

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                  • Capricorn 1: I've never seen this before. In fact I don't think I've ever even come across it before until a couple weeks ago. Which is very hard to understand given it's quality and I know it's not obscure. Somehow we've just not crossed paths. Was this movie the inspiration for the "man never got to the moon" conspiracy theories? It's early enough that it could be. In fact I think I've seen frames of the Mars set in the Capricorn 1 filtered black and white as 'evidence' of the moon studio studio.

                    Anyway what a most excellent movie. I've watched some real trash recently and it's very grounding to sit down and watch a smart, gritty 70s flick. Back in the days when you didn't have cameras that do tricks and computers to fix what the cameras fuck up and so the makers have to rely on a script. Elliot Gould should have been in more things. I know he was in a lot I'm just saying there should have been more. Next, onto Busting!
                    "Never let the fact that they are doing it wrong stop you from doing it right." Hyman Mandell.

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                    • A couple nights ago I streamed The Raven (2012) with John Cusack. Entertaining enough, but not too surprising. Might be worth watching if you like Edgar Allan Poe stories, like me.

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                      • Star Chamber: the more I watch Hyams films the more I'm thinking it's a shame he was a studio guy. With his style he would have been one of the all time great exploitation directors. Imagine him turning out a Pam Grier vehicle or rape revenge film every 6 months. There would be some classics.

                        Even as a studio production this is pretty entertaining. Its got the kinetic direction you expect from Hyams at this time and what I used to call 'Tony Scott lighting'. I guess I should be renaming that mentally as Peter Hyams lighting.

                        I can understand why the reviews are mixed. It is a Michael Douglas studio picture and one has expectations of those. The far fetched storyline and the bluntness with which it presents its themes sit a bit oddly with those expectations.

                        How would this have played if it was a junk picture and Fred Williamson was the judge? I would probably like that picture even more but I enjoyed this one just fine.
                        "Never let the fact that they are doing it wrong stop you from doing it right." Hyman Mandell.

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                        • Running Scared: This a buddy cop film from 1984 with Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines as the buddies and Joe Pantalino and Jimmy Smits among the ne'er do wells they are pitted against. The buddies would rather be running a bar on the beach than being cops but they decide on one last bust before hanging up their badges. Given the release date it would be easy to lump it as one of the many 48 Hours knockoffs but it's bears as much resemblance to the directors earlier Busting as that film so that would be unkind. This is tops. Quick-fire, very deadpan, reasonably witty dialogue being reeled off at pace by a cast with the chops to pull it off. Probably should be better known than it is. I preferred it to most of the better known examples, in fact probably all from this period excepting Lethal Weapon.
                          "Never let the fact that they are doing it wrong stop you from doing it right." Hyman Mandell.

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                          • Currently about 2/3 of the way through Forbidden Love, a cozy documentary about Canadian lesbians in the 1950s and 1960s. Recommend if you have the slightest interest in the topic. One of the talking heads is Ann Bannon, queen of the lesbian pulp fiction authors. Some screen time involves actors recreating a few scenes from her books.

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                            • Alien: thought while watching Alien: why does this ship have a self destruct sequence? This ship is the size of a city. It must be worth trillions of dollar- in today's money even. So why would you put a small crew of underpaid people on it and give them the ability to blow it sky high? Has any vehicle ever been built with a self destruct sequence? What would be the point of such a thing?

                              Second thought, never occurred to me before but 'get away from her you bitch!' was clearly a call back to Sigourney calling mother bitch.

                              The things you miss.
                              Last edited by Dom D; 03-07-2023, 01:50 AM.
                              "Never let the fact that they are doing it wrong stop you from doing it right." Hyman Mandell.

                              Comment


                              • Also the ships cat... whats the story with that? Did it have its own stasis capsule or was it bunking with Sigourney?

                                Plus when Sigourney blows the airlock how come it doesn't get sucked out with the Alien? Is that established? Considering how much time is spent on the fucking cat that seems key information...
                                Last edited by Dom D; 03-07-2023, 02:04 AM.
                                "Never let the fact that they are doing it wrong stop you from doing it right." Hyman Mandell.

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