After seeing "Boogie Nights", I have been a little reluctant to see previous work from director Paul Thomas Anderson from fear of being disappointed. Well, I feel a little silly that I doubted the man who directed one of my all time favorite movies. "Hard Eight" is the story of a down on his luck guy named John (John C. Reilly) who is helped out by an older guy named Sydney (Philip Baker Hall) who takes John under his wing and helps him start over and learn where he went wrong. Shortly later, we are in Reno and are introduced to a cocktail waitress named Clementine (Gwyneth Paltrow) and a bad ass named Jimmy (Samuel L. Jackson). Now, with a cast like that, you certainly have a sure thing, right? Absolutely, Anderson shows that the style he displayed in "Boogie Nights" was clearly developing when he made this film with the long weaving Steadicam shots and the emphasis on dialogue and relationships rather than action and violence. If you liked "Boogie Nights" or simply like originality, style, and stories when you are watching movies, rent this one.
Please Don't Eat My Mother! (1972)
Nearing the end of my Rene Bond kick for the time being, I decided to rent this naked take on "Little Shop Of Horrors". A middle aged loser played by Buck Kartalian buys a talking plant and brings it home where he lives with his domineering and nagging mother. It begins to grow and soon begins to demand living flesh as food. Buck has no problem finding it as, in his spare time, his voyeuristic personality leads him to many a naked young person. He lures people back to his home (or takes them at gunpoint) and they become plant food. Rene Bond is featured as a beauty who wastes her lover because he is insecure about his sexual performance. Loads of nudity and sex scenes that seemed to be veering towards XXX territory. You can get this from Something Weird.
This one was right up my alley. I miss the scream queen films of my teenage years and this was a welcome surprise that brought me back to the good old days. A group of five girls (including Gail Harris, Melissa Moore, and Debra Dare) have to count inventory late one night at the lingerie company they work at. While there, a box is delivered that was supposed to go to an archaeologist played by Famous Monsters creator Forrest J. Ackerman. It's too bad for the girls that the box contains some sort of demon that they unwittingly unleash with a "Hellraiser"-type box. There is also a creepy janitor guy who was mixed up in some sorority house massacre lurking around in the tower as well. With all this going on, the girls still manage to find a shower in their bosses office (?) which they all need to use of course. They also have enough scream queen sensibility to know that after you take a shower in a movie like this, you naturally need to try on the convenient lingerie so you are prepared when the evil forces show up. It is probably much more comfortable to run around in. Lots of firing guns, screaming, and fun. I loved this one and would recommend it to anyone who loves the b-movies of the 80's such as "Slumber Party Massacre" and the like. Jim Wynorski directed and it is also known as "Tower of Terror".
An anthology film starring Gunnar Hansen ("Texas Chainsaw Massacre") as a homeless man who joins some teenagers at their campfire and tells them some scary stories. The first story is based on the urban legend about the escaped mental patient with a hook for a hand. You know, the story they are talking about at the beginning of "I Know What You Did Last Summer". Next, we have "Overtoke" about a couple of pot smokers who smoke some weed that has some unpleasant effects. The third story concerns some dickhead at Christmas time who decides to push his mom down a flight of stairs and is visited by Satan Claus. Finally, we have a cool little pirate story involving some undead buccaneers. This one was very ambitious with some cool effects and mucho gore. It was also written quite well but was a little lacking in some of the technical departments such as lighting and sound. This would have been really good if the filmmakers had some more cash. Nevertheless, an decent first effort from Paul Talbot and William Cooke.
Curiosity drew me to this one as I have been seeing an ad for some films starring this guy named Danny Fendley in the back pages of Draculina magazine for quite some time. Well, now I know who he is and although he could use some acting lessons, he did have something about him that was appealing. Perhaps it was his natural cheesiness. (That is not meant as an insult). Fendley stars as Rick Stone, the world's biggest action star who is about to go through a brutal divorce with his wife Michelle (Brigitte Nielsen). A news reporter (Dana Plato from "Diff'rent Strokes"), desperate for a big story, decides to follow Rick one day when she spots him on the street. The trail leads to Rick's lover's house (Melissa Moore) where they are having sex. Dana naturally captures this on film and broadcasts it which, in turn, gives Rick's soon to be ex-wife a lot of clout in the upcoming divorce. The next thing you know, Brigitte is dead and Rick is the prime suspect. What follows is a pretty good b-movie murder mystery that wasn't too obvious (or maybe I'm just slow). I liked it and will probably rent another Danny Fendley flick. This was directed by Donald Farmer and is a huge step up from the other movie of his that I have seen of his which is called "Red Lips".
Another one from Something Weird and starring Rene Bond. I am seriously not going to review anything else involving her for a while. Rene is hitchhiking with a friend at the beginning of the film and they catch a ride with some musicians who are heading for the same bar where Rene and her friend work. Along the way, they pull over to have sex and motor home breaks down. The eventually find their way to the club and we meet a deep voiced country singer who is also pimping girls out of the club. The usual sex scenes ensue and some really tacky music scenes with the band are included in the mayhem. As usual, there was no real point to this and it was lacking any really memorable weird scenes that you can usually pick out of these flicks. Not my top Rene Bond pick.
This time around, Shaft goes undercover in Africa to bring down a slavery operation that exploits the black man. I had my doubts whether this would work as I thought that Shaft belonged on the streets of New York but this one turned out to be my favorite of the series. We are treated to some stick fighting, a whorehouse breakout, a beautiful woman (Neda Arneric) enticing Shaft aboard a boat (which includes some of the funniest dialogue I have ever heard), and a former Nazi jail which Shaft must infiltrate to bust out his brothers. Richard Roundtree is in top form as the title character and I only wish this series could have gone on for another flick or two. There was a short TV series but I doubt that it could have the same appeal as the movies do.
Surrender Cinema is a new production company that specializes in "erotic" science fiction movies. I believe that this is the first release from the company so I thought I'd see what it was all about. "Virtual Encounters" stars Elizabeth Kaitan ("Assault Of The Killer Bimbos") as an inhibited woman whose boyfriend gives her a gift certificate to experience some virtual reality sessions that will tap into her deepest desires. What follows is a series of softcore vignettes showing various acts of passion. Surrender Cinema regular Jacqueline Lovell ("Femalien") is featured as is porn star Jill Kelly. This was quite boring but it was cool to see Elizabeth Kaitan again as she hasn't really done anything noteworthy in a number of years. Fairly standard in the erotic department and nothing in the way of character development or plot. I should know better by now.
Classic war drama starring Cliff Robertson as John F. Kennedy. Kennedy is the captain of a crumbling PT-Boat during World War II. He fixes it up and together with his crew, they get in various confrontations with the Japanese armed forces. Eventually, the boat is destroyed and Kennedy and his men are stranded in the middle of the ocean with nowhere to go except for a number of islands that may or may not be occupied by the Japanese troops. Quite the good adventure story that made good use of its over two hour running time. It really made me want to watch more of the classics (but I'm always saying that). Some of the more notable co-stars include Robert Culp, Robert Blake, and Norman Fell (Mr. Roper from "Three's Company"). Worth a look if you like the classics and war movies.
Ilsa, Harem Keeper Of The Oil Sheiks (1976)
I couldn't help but wonder what the little boy who acted in the movie thought about it. This is the second in the Ilsa trilogy and Dyanne Thorne returns as the lead character who finds joy in torture. There are a number of brutal scenes although this was quite a bit tamer than the first movie. I did get a kick out of Ilsa's henchpersons (is that right?) who go by the names Satin and Velvet. They are a pair of black, kung-fu, lesbians who kick ass in a strange, slow, and pseudo-graceful way. It's hard to explain but it looks kind of funny. We are also treated to a cheesily studly American spy-type guy who tries to break up Ilsa's white slavery ring by sleeping with her. It somehow worked but the notion of Ilsa falling in love with this All-American boy was about as believable as Leatherface getting all mushy in Texas Chainsaw II. Let villains be villains.
I turned out all the lights when I watched this hoping that I would be scared out of my wits. The whole notion of an accident victim being haunted by souls after a "near death" experience struck me as something that would be very creepy along with the fact that it is in black and white and has a reputation for sending the old chill up the spine. I wasn't quite as freaked as I thought I would be but I found other reasons to like this movie. It had a dark, gothic style and eventually was playing more like a mystery than a horror movie in that you were trying to figure out what was up with the lead character and her weird visions. The old man face in the window gag always gets to me though and I'm actually starting to get a little spooked thinking about it now as I'm remembering some of the images. If you took all of the creepiness of this and combined it with the creepiness of "Let's Scare Jessica To Death" in a single movie, you probably would have a hard time sleeping for a couple of months.
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