What is the latest good film you watched ?

Luxman

Luxman

#TRE45ON
AltarsOfLust

AltarsOfLust

Island Of Death. Arrow Video has a [NOBABE]blu-ray[/NOBABE] transfer with a bunch of extras. I'm interested in that after watching this. I had no idea what this film would have. I saw it listed as "Classic erotica" and "horror," and I think "incest." I couldn't remember the latter in previewing the film, but once the film finished, I got my confirmation.

I was thinking the movie's a British production. I watched Virgin Witch recently, which came a few years before this. The British babes on that were stunning, pale and everything. The two main characters are British, and the blonde Celia (Jane Lyle) embodied that British beauty, plus tanlines! It's a Greek production, and apparently the director, Nico Mastorakis made this because he was inspired by Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He figured the gore and over the top nature of the film earned it so much money, that if he tried to one up that movie, he'd make even more money. So the movie was made strictly for money. He wrote the script in a week apparently, and was set on making some money.

The problem is that it's over the top in different ways. Ways that are experimental, which is the nice way of putting it. Without sugar coating, it's downright fucking creepy and messed up. I mean, within the first 10 minutes, the main guy, Christopher, raped a lamb! Out of nowhere, he just raped a lamb, and stabbed it to death, and the blood was deposited into the well of the residence they're occupying in the Greek island of Mikonos. That was shocking, and there's no way stuff like that would make money, when censors would be all over that. Maybe he had to make it in the United States.

The plot is a couple that feels the need to cleanse the small city in Mikonos of sin. These sins are determined by the male, Celia progressively becomes hesitant, which is a bit inconsistent in one part. That part is caused by a black guy named Foster, who has a nice afro. Christopher called him a crazy n-word, he just blurted it out, no problem. He raped a fucking lamb, the guy has no remorse. Note that the couple are not angels, the fact they kill people is one thing, and the relationship itself is perverse. I don't think I should spoil it. They lied about their relationship in one small scene, and I thought it was actually true. Eventually, the truth of their relationship is even more perverse.

The movie's creepiness is what makes it awesome, as well as the skin. Jane Lyle was a beautiful tart, for lack of a better term. She gets nude a lot here, some others do. There's a milf that just got my blood boiling all the time. Oh my goodness, her scene was the best. Patricia, total milf body man. The perversions that made Christopher want to kill and Celia to sometimes help: fucking Celia, gay marriage, prostitution, lesbian tryst, heroin addiction, rape. All those almost happen in order pretty much. The first one was planned, Celia turned a guy on, he bones her, Christopher kills via nailing the hands almost stigmata style. Throughout the killings, Christopher takes pictures, he keeps an account of the deaths in a red diary. Despite all that, he's terrible at securing these personal items. The place where they live in, barely lock the door! That's exactly why the two hippies raped Celia. It's ridiculous and one of the weakest parts of the film.

Another weak part is Celia. For most of the killings, she's alright with it, but once Foster finds them, her doubts rise. Despite that, she's totally fine with having Foster killed. After that though, it's back to being concerned. That was weird, and even weirder that she has the happy ending, when she's just as guilty as Christopher.

The biggest strength of the film, other than the skin, are the deaths. They're creative and pretty brutal. Stigmata, slasher style chase followed by sword strikes, shooting a gay man in the head after teasing the guy with the item like it's a dick, a tractor shovel decapitation, body spray acting as a flamethrower. The rape caused the least inventive death, get the gun out and bam. The other two deaths are not related to the perversions: a hook reminiscent of slasher films unintentionally impaling a nude woman, and being buried alive under limestones.

The film drags a bit, but overall it's one made for money, but the effect is shock value. I was pleasantly shocked and entertained, so much so I want to fork over my own money for Arrow's release. It includes commentary from the writer-director, and maybe he knows about the lead actress and where she is. Jane Lyle, pretty much gone, and her birthdate is unknown. I'd like to know what she looks like 39 years later. Jessica Dublin died unfortunately.

There is a bit of a happy ending, but somehow rape causes that. A different rape scene, Jane got it twice! It's basically a major film about perversion. The ultimate film? I don't know, Antichrist and Nymphomaniac come to mind. But this one's from 1976, way ahead of its time as far as the sick shit that's more common today. Oh and Foster, a black man, got lynched. Yeah. It's a unique one, but still, lynched. Great film.

I also saw the documentary Inside Deep Throat. It was really good in that it offered both sides objectively, though the narrator drives the film towards the more pro-porn like side. That needs qualifying, it seems like the pro-porn ended at the peak of video distributed porn. It touched on modern porn, at least in terms of up to 2005, when this film was released. Totally right in saying it's become more about money and business than "art." There's a message that where porn was heading, into an acceptable art form in same footing as Hollywood movies, failed to make it. It never has made it, it never will. So that goes back to Deep Throat being a landmark movie that started "porn chic" and led to cinematic adventures with hardcore sex. When porn was shot on film. They didn't mention these titles, but stuff like Pretty Peaches and the Taboo films from Kirdy Stevens, really had a cinematic feel to it. The former was a comedy with hardcore sex. The latter was an incest drama, with hardcore sex. Watching those Taboo films, they run longer than a porn film should, I think it's more story than sex, but yeah.

On the negative side. The former FBI agent interviewed, douche. The prosecutor in the Harry Reems case, Larry Parrish. Fucking cunt. Asshole. Dickhead. Jerk. Twat. Knobhead. Ughhh, he really pissed me off, he's the worst parts of a Republican, i.e. Donald Trump...

And he wishes he can wash away the images of Deep Throat. He said that to the camera, but come on, secretly he must watch porn. The negative side was presented to show the shift in [NOBABE]Linda Lovelace[/NOBABE], among other things. She went from pornstar, maybe the first ever I think, to anti-porn girl, to going back to porn a bit, then dying. The director of Deep Throat made her behavior easy to track. She basically needed someone to tell her what to do. She was forced into porn by Chuck Traynor, who sounded like a real twat. Gerard Damiano, the director, mentioned that he'd send Traynor out on some production related job, and thus Linda would be comfortable to doing a scene with Harry Reems. Cheeky.

The other end of the twat spectrum was Gloria Steinem, who sounds like the worst parts of feminists. The whole story really made [NOBABE]Linda Lovelace[/NOBABE] into a poor victim of bad influences. There was footage where she gave testimony that when someone watches Deep Throat, they're watching her get raped. That was painful to see, I don't believe that's true, for one. Again, other end of the spectrum, she became penniless, and ended up dead from a car crash, with nothing.

Harry Reems got redemption, his story was nice to follow. The narrator, Dennis Hopper by the way, said that Reems was the first actor to be prosecuted for simply acting. Yeah, a porno, but still. And he was acting, contrary to that other knob, Lenny Camp was saying. Comedic acting, I was laughing, I did actually see Deep Throat. He could've made a nice comic actor, his face alone looks like a comic's face. It sucks that he was the only one that got punished for Deep Throat, Linda and Gerald were "immune" as Frank Booth said. His verdict was overturned later, but the guy still suffered. Alcoholism and such. He got the happy ending, but since this film, he's passed on. So did Gerald.

Awesome documentary for sure, if anything, it really persuades one to watch more vintage porn. Some of the filmmakers were really ambitious. It can be heard in Gerald's words, he took Deep Throat seriously. It was interesting to hear that directing porn was sometimes an entry level into Hollywood filmmaking. Wes Craven appeared on this, and he was very vague about him and porn. What I gathered was he was involved in some form.

Other interviews include a Florida theater manager who got Deep Throat in the state, some crew members from Deep Throat, which is a loose statement, because Lenny Camp was a knob, and this other guy simply supplied a wine cellar that hosted one scene in Deep Throat.

I like the brief footage of an AVN show, the pornstars asked about Deep Throat. None of them had a clue, funny.

I think I'll watch Lovelace. I'm not sure though, even though it has James Franco, [NOBABE]Amanda Seyfried[/NOBABE]. It focuses on the Deep Throat era of Linda and her abusive relationship with Chuck Traynor, and I think her whole story is worth a major biopic. Just one area though?
 
AltarsOfLust

AltarsOfLust

Death Race 2000. Oh my goodness, I read a list on letterboxd that is just a repost of Maxim's list of the greatest B-movies of all time. This movie was number 1. Number 2 was Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls. That was a very interesting movie, slower paced than other Russ Meyer films, and apparently was [NOBABE]Pam Grier's[/NOBABE] first film appearance. I don't know where she is in the film, very very small part.

Anyways, seeing Death Race 2000 at the top of this nice looking list, convinced me to give it a try. I should've watched it ages ago, it's so awesome! It really wastes no time, and does the best possible way of storytelling. Pretty much start with the action, introduce the racers, and we're off. Throughout the film, there is some exposition, the story is filled up, and perfectly. These can be considered "quiet" scenes. The car scenes also have plot development, but the quiet scenes really hold up. Amazingly well, and that's because there's a great sense of humor in it. The rebels are funny, the media personalities are cartoon characters, the religious cult looking like is a laugh. This movie overall is just hilarious and over the top.

I didn't look at who produced it, but damn, I was not surprised at all. Roger Corman! Brilliant, it makes a lot of sense. I had to give imdb's trivia section for this movie a read, just to confirm some thoughts. The cars themselves, I thought they were specially built props, but turned out to be redesigns of other cars. They weren't street legal, and stunt drivers were hesitant to use them in fear of getting caught by the police. One thought confirmed, undercranking. I was thinking that the cars were really going at a normal speed, by looking at the background, and having firsthand experience of a car going at 80MPH on a highway. On a van, it doesn't feel so fast, maybe the cars went at a similar speed, or lower, but I would think the alleged speeds are over 100MPH. So yeah, undercranking, which was really well done actually, it made the cars look like toys, which for a movie like this, works. Hot Wheels in real life.

Some nice little facts. Sylvester Stallone and David Carradine did most of their own driving. Mary Woronov didn't do any driving, she didn't know how to. That was odd, and she was taken around via tow truck and the camera catching her in the car. Very well done, it looked like she was driving. Sly wrote some of his dialogue, which makes sense because the stuff he said, could not have been written by anyone else. Carradine chose this film basically to shake off Kung Fu.

The film ran for less than 80 minutes and there was not one slow moment. Even when they weren't driving, the movie just entertained in its ridiculousness. It was basically Wacky Races in live action. Wacky deaths for sure, some wacky dialogue, especially by Sly Stallone. Wacky chases and action sequences. The blood was clearly paint, and Sly looked to have his face dumped in orange paint! That blood looked too orange. And this is a Corman production, so there has to be nudity. Small, but really nice. All the female characters, drivers and navigators, get naked, all at once in a massage scene. Louisa Moritz, who got me rock hard in Last American Virgin, not so much nudity here, but still great to see her. And hear her, she sounded like a mouse, sat next to buff Sly Stallone. Mary Woronov was tall and sexy, Roberta Collins looked very nice, Simone Griffeth was the best of the bunch, oh my goodness, stunning.

It was sad that everyone but the protagonist, David Carradine's Frankenstein, died during the race. The first death came very shortly after the race began, so that pair, too bad, but that was funny. Calamity Jane's navigator was squashed by Matilda The Hun, that was hilarious! Note most of the deaths are very quick shots, which helps in not exposing obvious tricks. Like Jane's navigator's head. They didn't quick shot Matilda's death though, thus exposing how clear the car falling down had a dummy. One dummy, not even 2 since it was her and the navigator.

Calamity Jane, oh that was tense, because she was unknowingly avoiding a mine explosion. Unfortunately she had to blow up. Sly's death was also a drag, he was the single best part of the whole movie. My goodness he was hilarious, over the top, embodied this movie perfectly. Carradine had a stoicism to it, and kind of went against the film's overall animated tone. Well, that character is animated, but it looked like Carradine took it seriously. Stallone's character, just hammy, absolutely amazing. Every single thing he said was entertaining, most of the time it made me laugh. His first scene even set the stage, he pulls out a machine gun, ala Rambo, shoots, and does the wide open mouth expression, damn. I can see traces of Rambo and his Tango & Cash character in this role. It was certainly one of his most entertaining roles ever. Actually, I'd put it number 3 behind Rambo and Rocky, that's how good it was. Yeah he's not known for many awesome roles, but damn he killed it here.

[NOBABE]The rebel[/NOBABE] plot was a laugh because they kept failing, and technically they're the good guys. The government is evil, Frankenstein is believed to be buddies with the president. The leader was an old lady, who could've been Ma in the Clint Eastwood/Clyde movies! She was Annie Smith's "great" grandmother. That's hard to believe, but still. Frankenstein has his own agenda though, and that does benefit the rebels in the end. Which by the way was ridiculous, though funny. Immediately after the president is killed, Frankenstein becomes the president! Ah man, and even though he abolished the Transcontinental Race, he still had it in him to kill Harold the TV guy.

So yeah, fucking brilliant. I approached this film like I did Rocky Horror Picture Show, in that I was finally going to watch a major cult movie. As in, a godfather of cult movies, an O.G. so to speak. This film is that, for 1975, it really set up the B-movie/Cult genre in the 80s. Also a seminal Corman production, and I'm just finding out how far his career stretches. So far I've enjoyed his 70s, 80s, 90s, 21st century productions, but he goes back farther. I've never watched a movie earlier than 1960, which was The Magnificent Seven. I think I'll change that after hearing about The Wasp Woman. A 1959 film he co-directed.

This is one of the best movies I've seen this year, classic without a doubt.

Today was just a great day in watching movies. After this, The Lady In Red. Another Corman 70s production, but definitely more in line with what he produces. Like Death Race 2000, it's ultraviolent and crazy, but more like typical Corman, the nudity on this is staggering. It was a chronicle of Polly Franklin's life, who was a fictionalized version of Polly Hamilton, John Dillinger's girlfriend. I did remember Public Enemies with Johnny Depp, which I only saw once, but the Dillinger death scene was really similar to the newer film. Anyways, that chronicle included rape by daddy, a stay in prison, being a prostitute, working at a diner, then pretty much being a bank robber, and a hitchhiker at the end. It was so wild, and felt like all the exploitation genres that Roger Corman produced. There was hicksploitation, Women In Prison, crime, action, exploitation of women, everything fitted into a 93 minute film! If it was done seriously by Hollywood, it would be well over 2 hours, because Polly Franklin's life reads like an epic tale. In 93 minutes, no filler, it just kept moving, bang after bang after bang.

One of the pairs of boobs is [NOBABE]Kitten Natividad[/NOBABE]! She appeared briefly, but damn man. The prison stuff, all kinds of boobs, all kinds of women, lots of bush. Young, old, skinny, fat, white, black, all kinds of women, even in one damn scene! Legendary stuff. Robert Forster was in this, for some reason uncredited, but damn he was great. He was the nicest lay of Polly's whore career, I'll put it that way. The John Dillinger stuff was really small, again Polly Franklin's a made up character, but took from Polly Hamilton during the Dillinger stuff. Christopher Lloyd was awesome, he played a racist gangster named Frognose. His face looked beat up big time, pretty funny, stole every scene he was in. On the violence, the blood effects here were better technically than Death Race 2000. Squibs, a whole lot of them, the film really looked like The Godfather in that respect. A lot of the kills were mob hits, assassin style jobs, gangster vs. gangster gunfights. Police acting as a firing squad, it was absolutely crazy. Awesome stuff, [NOBABE]Pamela Sue Martin[/NOBABE] did a great job as Polly Franklin. By the way, she was in red a few times, but not so much, as the title of the film would suggest. Very young too, my goodness, nubile babe, I love it.

Briefly, I saw Personals: College Girl Seeking with [NOBABE]Renee Rea[/NOBABE]. I watched it to catch a scene that was believed to be hardcore. It's the final sex scene in the movie, and no, it's not hardcore. Her pussy was clear cameltoe, that shit would've been opened. However, she was totally sat on the guy's balls. I love that, closest to hardcore, but no penetration. I saw the sock dammit, there was another shot in the previous orgy scene, a guy clearly had a sock on. Anyways, when she was banged in that scene, it looked more hardcore porn like. And the guy banging her was bald and muscular, totally looking like a modern male pornstar. Anyways, softcore movie, it's great because of the skin.

The other big movie I saw today, Dressed To Kill. Brian De Palma scores again. Body Double was awesome, and this too. The guy must've been ruling the 80s, these 2 movies, Scarface, my goodness. All of them too had a serious violent tone. Scarface took it to 11, and that was the whole film. Body Double and Dressed To Kill were firmly erotic thrillers. This one though stands out as it's more mystery driven, and often times surreal.

That started right away with the first scene. [NOBABE]Angie Dickinson[/NOBABE] was stunning, but I was bummed out to read that there was a body double for that scene. Fooled me big time, it was a lot more obvious in Big Bad Mama 2. However, in a later scene, you see her butt, that's real. Anyways, that scene where she's taking a shower and pleasuring herself to the sight of her husband shaving, a man came from behind her in the shower and suffocated her. That turned out to be a dream. After watching the film, I thought back on how the ending was so damn fitting, and brought the film full circle. It was already a great ending, but I got the "ahhhhh" when I thought back to the first scene.

Angie's character, like [NOBABE]Deborah Shelton[/NOBABE] in the first movie, looked to be a main character. It was all about her, I figured the film would be her being targeted by a killer that was associated with the man she ended up fucking. Leave it to De Palma to take the film in a totally different direction. I had the same shock with her character as I did Shelton's. Before that though, oh my goodness. Angie's 30 minutes in the film was porn for me. The sounds she made during the sex parts, her mature and beautiful face, the amazing music that also dominated the rest of the film beautifully, even her all-white outfit in the bulk of that screen time. Stunning, amazing. The museum scene was 9 minutes long, no dialogue, just music and looking at the faces and body movements of Dickinson and the Lockman guy. I can't believe how amazing a scene like that was. I got so drawn to it, when me and my low attention span, would yawn a bit at this. It was so well done, and was the best scene in the movie. I'm saying that, when the competition is just hot and heavy. After that scene, the taxi cab scene where Angie's getting her pussy eaten out and fingered, holy fuck, awesome. Again like the museum, after Angie gets out of bed following an afternoon of shagging, no dialogue. The music carries the scene, and then the bombshell is dropped, her character slept with a man infected with two STDs! I was shocked.

Even moreso when right after that, she leaves the apartment in a hurry, and she gets killed! In an elevator! By a shaving razor! That scene was just so violent, the music again just carries the scene, Angie's cries are there, the blood, the camera work and effects to really make the slicing and dicing look realistic. It's incredible. I can't think of De Palma being mainstream, only Mission Impossible comes to mind, but this guy, I guess has to be considered a cult film king. I don't know, I told myself after the taxicab oral sex scene, that the film was 10/10 already. I said it was a horny guy, but still, staggering quality. The rest of the movie plays out, and it holds up really well after Dickinson's death. I didn't notice a dropoff.

It helps that the hottie of this 60+ minute section was [NOBABE]Nancy Allen[/NOBABE]. Apparently younger looking here than her age would lead you to believe. She played a hooker who has a thing for investments, it's a small quality, she had some dialogue about the stock market, and her beautiful painting probably being worth more in the future than the $500 she spent on it. Anyways, she witnessed poor Angie's death, and the film is about solving that murder. It's an awesome ride, because lead actor Michael Caine looked to be the investigator of this at first. He was Angie's therapist, and he believed a transsexual patient of his, Bobby, was [NOBABE]the killer[/NOBABE]. Yeah, for 1980, this film really handled transsexualism interestingly. It kind of assumes it to be a mental disorder though, because Bobby, whose last name was never mentioned, and in hindsight, foreshadows the ending big time, wanted to be a woman. Michael Caine's Dr. Elliott didn't approve. So it's thought that Bobby killed Angie as a way to spite Dr. Elliott. The razor he used was stolen off of Caine's office.

The tension was really good, something could've happened here and there, but it didn't, yet as a viewer I'm still satisfied. Such as it is for a thriller. Nancy does get nude, but her's is very tasteful, and sly in a way. Pretty much it's teased until the end, and even that is shot where it isn't explicit. That's about it for the nudity, but it still is an erotic thriller. The movie's 35 years, so spoiler alert? Forget it, I won't spoil, but I did predict something close to the actual reveal. I think that's more on my being lucky in guessing, and not the movie being really obvious. The obvious comes up only after watching the film, and even then, it's only slightly obvious at best. Basically, the movie does a fantastic job keeping you guessing. Also, the roles shift, because I thought Caine would be the lead investigator. It then turned to being [NOBABE]Nancy Allen[/NOBABE], and includes Angie's character's son, who is a wiz at technology. He's not a stereotypical goofy geek, the guy doesn't fuck around, I love it. I'd like to see the depiction of nerdy characters more, the comedic stuff is great, but when it's really serious such as this film, it works so well.

The funniest scene was when Nancy and the geek son had lunch at what was actually a restaurant in the World Trade Center. Nancy explained how a man becomes a woman, transsexuality and such. Behind them is a religious old lady who got more and more disgusted with the talk. That was hilarious, Nancy talked about hormone treatment, the dick cutting, forming it into a vagina! That was so good.

A very interesting fact, the person who played Bobby, is the same person that played a detective that looked like Bobby. Sounds confusing, right? Susanna Clemm, the interesting fact is that if you see the film, and that detective have a struggle with the geek son in the final minutes of the film.

The beginning of the film was a dream, the ending of the film was a dream, full circle man. I don't think that spoils the ending, but more teasing. I hate the whole "It was all a dream" plot device. Nightmare City for example, it was all a fucking dream, but it partially redeemed itself when the dream became a reality. Illicit Dreams, I saw last night. [NOBABE]Shannon Tweed[/NOBABE] again, but fucking hell, it was all a dream. However, this movie used the plot device a bit, but it wasn't "all" a dream, again the start and end. Done really well here, but in general, I just hate that plot device. That's like saying out loud to the viewer, "It's just a movie."

Awesome film, loved it more than Body Double. It's shorter, but the strengths of this over Body Double is the lack of weak links. Body Double's weak link was [NOBABE]Melanie Griffith[/NOBABE], which I'm still flabbergasted she got a Golden Globe nod for her role. Again, she wasn't bad entirely, just annoying. Really, she came off looking like a damsel in distress, and the acting looked like an 80s scream queen. That would be a compliment, but there were actual scream queens in the 80s who did this kind of acting, better. Yet they never got a Golden Globe nod, this bitch though? Okay, not a bitch, I just wanted to use the word. [NOBABE]Nancy Allen[/NOBABE] acts as a damsel in distress in some scenes, but she really handles herself in other scenes, and plus her help was a smart man, both were really in equal footing too. Basically, put [NOBABE]Nancy Allen[/NOBABE] in a fight against [NOBABE]Melanie Griffith[/NOBABE]. [NOBABE]Nancy Allen[/NOBABE] would win, and she's older than her by the way. Also, despite not being a pornstar, though a prostitute, she uses sex better than Melanie's [NOBABE]Holly Body[/NOBABE] character would've.

I think I'm going to see Carrie in the near future. That's an appropriate film for October, right? Yeah, I'll give it a watch, I can definitely take more Brian De Palma. Up to Body Double, it was just Scarface, Untouchables, and Mission Impossible. These 2 erotic thrillers really add to the opinion that the guy was a brilliant filmmaker. He has an awesome taste in music, the cinematography in his films are incredible, even the locations of all those movies I mentioned. So yeah, I'm into the man.
 
AltarsOfLust

AltarsOfLust

Maniac Cop 2. The first one was pretty awesome, but the second one took away some of the awesome stuff. Two to be specific, and they are actors: Bruce Campbell and [NOBABE]Laurene Landon[/NOBABE]. They starred in the first movie, along with Tony Atkins. Bruce and Laurene were a police couple, the former was set up in a string of murders that were caused by Z'Dar's Maniac Cop, Matt Cordell.

What I meant by the second movie taking away two awesome parts, they're killed early on. I was confused when I didn't spot their names in the opening credits, at least the first billed ones. Instead taking lead is Robert Davi and [NOBABE]Claudia Christian[/NOBABE] as a cop and psychologist respectively. Their deaths are not really inventive, and they're just a drag. The same writer-director duo of Larry Cohen and William Lustig were part of this sequel, so I wonder why the two likable leads from the first movie were killed so early. That was really the most negative part, it was to a point where they should not have been part of the movie in the first place.

However, credit is due for continuity, but at the same time, their deaths should've been more epic. And also, fucking Bruce Campbell! He's killed within 20 minutes, a hatchet through the neck while reading a newspaper, for crying out loud. Landon's character fought back, but she started out shooting Cordell. As if she forgot the events in the first movie, guns don't work at all with the man. She busted out a chainsaw, which is better, but just a snapped neck, done. Bummer.

Unlike the first movie, there is some skin. It has to do with a stripper killer angle involving a bearded guy with dirty teeth. He meets Cordell and becomes enamored with him, wanting to be the Cop's friend. Cordell's face is notably more scarred up, but also a lot more makeup. His face looked like Scarecrow from Batman. Also, he's wearing thicker clothing, a jacket. I was thinking to pad up Robert Z'Dar on account of weight. However, I found out this was released in 1990, and looking at his work at that time, the dude was still a hulking man. Not musclebound, but not fat. So I don't know why they beefed up his outfit. His face looked almost comical too. And he talked for the first time, and that was too funny to be scary.

It's still about the Maniac Cop, and his kills are pretty good. The first movie had better kills, but this one brought in stuff the first movie didn't. Robert Davi's a great character actor, but I've only seen him in villain roles, and sleazebag stuff. Like Showgirls, he wasn't a bad guy there, but definitely a sleazebag. So here, he's the protagonist, and it convinced me that he'd make a good Noir actor. Born too late I guess, the old black and white film noirs would've fit him perfectly. [NOBABE]Claudia Christian[/NOBABE] as the psychologist, she's alright.

Action/horror is a correct description for the movie, because there's a lot of action, and it's not really that scary. Really, it's a cop action movie, the only horror trope is the man having superhuman slasher abilities. Technically he's "dead," as his touch is cold, he was killed in prison, but yet he walks among the living. You could tone down those otherworldly qualities, and he'd just be a psycho.

Great little fix, moves fast, kills are fine, things blow up, and is very similar to the first one. The highlight was certainly when Cordell was on fire and still killed all the guys who cut him up in prison. That was pretty awesome, I would like to know how they got that scene down. The Maniac Cop was on fire for at least 5 minutes! And if it wasn't one take, surely that means he was on fire even longer. Brilliant. The ending was obvious, especially knowing there's a third movie.

Operation Thunderbolt (Mivtsa Yonatan). Directed by Menahem Golan, the man who along with his cousin bought and owned Cannon for 10 years together. Ah yes, this and Lemon Popsicle got the cousins fame over in Israel, and led to their American migration. So knowing how important this film is, is it any good?

Yes, for the most part. I watched it for [NOBABE]Sybil Danning[/NOBABE], who played a terrorist, seemingly second in command to Klaus Kinski's Wilfried Boese. German terrorists along with a Spanish one, take hostage an Air France airplane filled with Israelis and Jewish people. There are other nationalities, but very few of them. The terrorists consider themselves "freedom fighters" opposing Israel taking over the Palestines with German movie. Something like that.

The movie is weird in that I liked the terrorists more than the hostages and the Israeli military. They get more of a focus, for one, and also, this isn't the 80s. There's no badass action hero to go against the terrorists. I was thinking Die Hard during this, no John McClane and such. It comes off as biographical. This was a bit of a retelling of an actual incident, and it feels like something that would happen for real. There's nothing over the top, no big explosions and deaths, headshots, limbs falling off. You know, over the top.

It didn't need it really, but it wouldn't hurt you know. There is definitely tension in this, and during the first hour and couple minutes, I'm very invested in the story. Again, it's because of Kinski and Danning being the shot callers, and their characters being unique from each other. This was my first Kinski movie, and I heard he was a crazy guy. He didn't act so crazy here, Danning did, which is why both characters are unique. Danning was a bit of a livewire, wanting to kill right away, rather impatient. She was certainly intimidating, which is a bit surprising because she wore sunglasses for most of the film. I was kind of antsy at that, wanting to see her beautiful eyes. Not to mention the sunglasses are designer ones, so to be intimidated in those is even more of an accomplishment. She spoke German for most of the film, and that was my first time hearing her speak the native language. I loved it.

So since I liked the terrorists more, that means I wasn't so down with the hostages. As a matter of fact, I disliked some of them. For example this young adult who may or may not have been in the military. He tried to hide a knife in a scene, and my goodness, he came off as a tool. I was so happy when he got killed. And the hostages never shut up. There are people with guns, who don't like fucking around, telling you to shut up. So shut the fuck up, they never listen. The terrorists have the patience of saints, and isn't that a likable quality?

The military weren't likable either, but not in that I disliked them. I just didn't care much for them. It's even worse when the leader of it, a man named Yoni, got killed immediately when he sprung to action in his well thought out plan. He didn't expect a gunman at the tower, he steps out of the shadows, bam he's shot, that's it. He dies slowly, but still, it's unbelievable.

Again, the terrorists die quickly, Kinski actually gets it first. The leader, he gets it first, what the hell? The rescue had all the action, but even that was a bit tame. It was very quick, obviously the soldiers were well prepared, you see the planning, and the practicing. This brings me to another problem with the film. It's a bit too long. 127 minutes long, I think it could've been 100 minutes, and you still get the movie presented as a whole. The soldier preparation scenes were a bit too much, and the media stuff was almost unnecessary. Like the American reporters talking with girls at a pool? What the fuck was the point of that scene? They could've said the stuff they said in another scene, and that would've lasted a couple seconds. Instead, this pool scene? It doesn't move fast, and a movie like this would've been better as a faster paced thriller. It's kind of like Argo in that respect, but that movie was carried by incredible acting. This one, less of an ensemble cast, and the ones carrying the film were killed off and pretty much became underused.

Jews have a bad habit of getting fucked a lot. It's sad, and how unsurprising that this movie had Germans being the ones to fuck Jews again. Anyways, it's certainly a solid movie, not classic, it's worth just one watch. I don't know if I can take it again, but [NOBABE]Sybil Danning[/NOBABE] would convince me otherwise. The ending where the hostages are reunited with their loved ones, that's a great scene. The movie's goal was to build up to that and the big gunfight, the conflict. It took too long to do that, and when it did, it was done at a fast pace and not very grand and epic. Still a good movie.

I don't recommend remakes a lot, but I think this should get a remake. It would fit in today, Jews getting fucked, that's not new at all in cinema. Middle Eastern stuff, still going on today. German terrorists, not so much, but still. For an Israeli audience, it must've been a great movie for them. Their people make it in the end. For an American viewer, I think it could've been better. I would not want a remake if CG was involved, not that I think any scene would get such a treatment. Trying to think of who should be tapped to work on such a remake. I can name directors I like, but I don't know if they'd do it. John McTiernan can work, he directed Die Hard, and the feel of this movie reminds me a bit of Die Hard. Cast, whatever works, I think the directing is more important because this film looked like it could've been better. The acting's as good as it can be. For one, more Kinski and Danning.

In the end, fine movie. It got an Oscar nomination for best foreign feature, good for them. I heard about Danning's involvement, she was part of producing it, and she had to fight for Klaus Kinski to be in it. It was a fight that turned out for the best. It's really those two that carry the film, everyone else floats around.
 
Armanaeus

Armanaeus

Ip Man.

Fantastic. This is an excellent mix of drama and action. The acting is great, and the camera work and script couldn't be better. Well known as a mentor to Bruce Lee, this man must be a symbol of solidarity to the Chinese people. When the people of Fo Shan needed strength, he gave it to them. Indomitable spirit commands admiration.

Now, when you make a movie set in a time of war, you don't want to make it about the nations warring against each other, opening up arrogance. I believe it has to be about fighting malice. However, in that same movie Master Ip did say:

Although martial arts involves armed forces, but Chinese martial arts is Confucius in spirit. The virtue of martial arts is benevolence. You Japanese will never understand the principle of treating others as you would yourselves, ... .
Click to expand...

I don't know if he meant all the people of Japan or just the soldiers. I guess we'll never know.
 
AltarsOfLust

AltarsOfLust

Apocalypse Soon. It's on Amazon Prime Video, once again I'm liking this service more and more. It's a documentary that followed the production of The Toxic Avenger 4. It was just a guy with a camera filming production, and asking cast and crew some stuff. Most of the times they vent to camera, and it shows how raw and candid the documentary was. It also showed that making a Troma film is not glamorous at all. I don't know how it is now, this was documenting a movie that was released in 2000. So it is dated, but from listening to an interview with mad genius Lloyd Kaufman, the situation of sleeping in sleeping bags and in and around the set, has not been lost.

So the fact this isn't glamorous, there are a lot of negative comments said. About Troma, some stuff on Lloyd, and in some parts, you understand. Some of things depicted could frustrate anyone, for example there was a big issue with a certain house. It had lead paint, and the health department thing gave the okay to film there. However, one guy, Aaron was pissing and moaning, spreading rumors that the lead paint was dangerous. This caused the house interior to not be filmed. Aaron was fired as some production assistant, only to be rehired as a still photographer! 10 other people were fired in that one event, and some of them talked to the camera, gave middle fingers and said "Fuck Troma," including Aaron.

There was also a busty woman who had one small role in the film, beating on the main brunette character with her tits. She legit made the lead actress loopy. Well, she complained about the experience, and said she made more money doing lesbian and fetish porn than doing this film. She said she'd never work with Troma again, and I guess that's been kept up. Some of the complaints are justified, some, not so much.

When looking at the cast and crew, the one constant is the director, Lloyd Kaufman. His portrayal in this is the strongest. To sum it up, he's a lovable tyrant. Very stubborn, but not to a point where it's annoying to me as a viewer. To the cast and crew, it must be a bad quality. He is all about his vision and finishing the film. There's no reshoots, and this is seen in the one day where Dave Mattey, the actor playing Toxie, was late. So rather than wait for the guy, Lloyd picked up some random guy off the street, a buff black man, and got him done up as Toxie. What's hilarious is that the guy is 6'2", and Mattey made it sound like he's short. He didn't give his own height, but I would guess at least 6'8"! The scene that was shot involved Toxie carrying the two special needs sidekicks on his arms out of the school. They did the scene, Mattey made it just as it was filmed. He does complain about it. He was late, but his complaints were justified. Worst of all, Lloyd didn't want to reshoot it. He doesn't compromise. The funny thing too is there is really no shooting schedule, but there are locations they have a limited time in. About 1/4 of the documentary was spent in the school they shot in. A limited time there, and in the final product, the school scenes take up 20 minutes of the film at best.

It's totally crazy. I'd like to label the guys interviewed the most, that gave their opinions the most, that survived from day one to the wrap, as the troopers. These people include Trent Haaga, who had a small role in the film, but did a lot of crew stuff as an Assistant Director and he co-wrote the film, Brendan Flynt, the Director of Photography. He sounded utterly boring, which is hilarious. The monotone voice and everything, and his face always looked bored. Jared Alterman, the location manager, he buried Aaron after the lead paint bullcrap. Patrick Cassidy, line producer and co-writer. So those guys, and of course the cast, nobody was really replaced, but their problems seemed small in comparison to major crew members.

It's definitely the longest Troma movie I've seen so far, 2 hours and 17 minutes, looking at a movie that's 109 minutes. It's the longest Toxic Avenger movie, and is definitely the best too. You can hear Lloyd say that a couple times, that this is the best, Dave Mattey's the best one to don the makeup, all this praise.

There's a serious laundry list of issues raised during production proving how not glamorous it was. Whether it be a camera not working, the weapons coordinator being late yet still charging on the clock, stuntman being a bit high and mighty about why stunt people exist, hesitation from the actress to do a lesbian love scene, women and babies crossing on school grounds when the crew is shooting, being late, oversleeping, alcohol fueled nights, a car overshooting its mark in a crash sequence. I think one of the smallest problems was actually flubbed lines. It's weird, blooper reels would focus on flubbed lines, them coming off as big issues. Here, it's almost nothing, there's so much else going on.

My question about Maniac Cop 2 was pretty much answered here. About being lit on fire, veteran stuntman T.J. Glen offered his services. Although Trent doesn't particularly like Lloyd's friends. The art of lighting someone on fire is explained. Basically, soak the actor's body and clothes, and hair, with fire retardant gel. The stunt in this film, I thought was fine, even though the fire wasn't big. It's still fire for crying out loud. The special needs male sidekick actor bet 1 dollar, because that's probably what he got paid to be in the film, that the stunt would suck. He won. I thought it was alright though. Back to the black guy that doubled for Toxie in 1 scene, I think he got paid $50! Later someone else doubled for Toxie when they couldn't find someone in enough time. A random crew member, only because his arms were big.

A running theme in the documentary is a "word of the day." Most of these are negative though, even from Lloyd himself. There's also stuff with the morbidly obese actor who appeared here. His story is a bit sad, he described it to Toxie's wife, played by [NOBABE]Heidi Sjursen[/NOBABE]. Joe Fleishaker, the fat actor, he said he did a lot of sports as a teen, and you see a picture of him, very lean. However, his eating habit offset the exercise he did, then in college, no time to exercise, so nothing to challenge his eating habit. Eventually he just ballooned. He mentioned boxes of donuts a day, 3 loafs of bred, pounding down 2 liter sodas. It's crazy.

I just found out Dave Mattey was in Hancock. If I recall correctly, he must've been the big bald guy that got the small black guy shoved up his ass by Will Smith in prison. That was funny.

Anyways, brutally candid documentary that shows independent filmmaking at its most challenging. It's very rewarding in the end, they did a wrap party that culminated in filming a scene with Lloyd accepting an Oscar, only to turn around and say "Fuck you Hollywood. It's lovely. There are successes during production, very few, but successes. And in the end, it's about the finished product. The epilogue spelled it out, one of their best reviewed films, and it made a staggering $27.50 in revenue! That's what the epilogue said, I didn't make up that number. Seriously, the finished product is awesome, one of Troma's best movies. So to go from a hellish production to that piece of cinema? It does say a lot about the cast and crew, and it ends with the line producer saying how it's a band of people who love doing what they're doing, and trying to work together.

Strike Of The Panther. Ozploitation martial arts film, fucking awesome! There are some stupid moments, like the mentor of Jason Blade having telepathic powers, when the prequel, Day Of The Panther, didn't have any of that mystical mumbo jumbo. Both movies came out the same year, and since I saw the first film a few weeks ago, it's annoying that the first 10 minutes of Strike recapped Day! It makes the film, a whopping 84 minutes, even shorter. Anyways, exactly the kind of movie I love that doesn't involve skin. The exploitation is in reverse, Jason Blade gets topless many times, and there's a shower scene where his flat ass is showing. No female nudity, and [NOBABE]Paris Jefferson's[/NOBABE] Gemma, Blade's girlfriend, was really young. This was released in 1988, the copyright in the end of the film said 1987. She was born in 1970. So, she was underage, it had to be filmed in 1987, so either 16 or 17. That must explain why her boobs weren't shown, and there was serious teasing.

The plot is simple, Baxter from the first movie escapes from prison, has a C-14 bomb. Yeah, C-14, not C-4. He threatens to blow up half the city, and he has Gemma hostage. Time for Jason Blade to save the day. That's about it, lots of good martial arts scene, Blade actor Edward John Stazak was the real deal. The sad thing is he only did 3 movies. Day, Strike, and this even rarer film called "Black Neon," which he co-wrote with the actor who played Baxter. And the guy who played Baxter, also directed that film! I can't find this film anywhere. Damn. On the director, Brian Trenchard-Smith, he has a filmography filled with wacky titled film. One of them, BMX Bandits, is on Amazon Prime. I'm going to watch that for sure, it has [NOBABE]Nicole Kidman[/NOBABE]! Anyways, sweet stuff.

Not Of This Earth. Jim Wynorski at it again, apparently he took a big risk casting [NOBABE]Traci Lords[/NOBABE], fresh off of her porn stint. She is pretty much the lead along with antagonist Johnson, played by Arthur Roberts. I haven't looked at Traci's movies, only one where she was definitely underage. So did she ever do porn at a legal age? If not, this is the most explicit legal skin of Traci. She goes topless, you see her butt, no bush. Those boobies, my goodness, they are deceptive. In one scene, they look small. In the other, where she's riding her cop boyfriend, they look big. Those nipples are big for sure, not puffy. It's a very fun movie. Another Corman production, and another remake of a late 50's film of the same name. Plenty of skin, not just Traci, a lot of big boobs, all of them bigger than Traci's. The plot is Johnson needing human blood, and taking it keeps him alive. He's on a mission, split into phases, to prolongue his life, and make himself more powerful I guess. His home world is ravaged with war, so somehow Earth was the destination for him.

It's a sci-fi romp, I was thinking it would be a horror flick. Nothing brutal, Johnson's deaths are all by his bright and shiny eyes, and they sucked the life out of women. Yeah, only women get killed, I guess their blood was stronger. Very quick film, 80 minutes, moves very well, no slow spots. There's a little appearance by [NOBABE]Monique Gabrielle[/NOBABE] as this strange looking woman, which confirmed my suspicion of Hard To Die. She definitely played the same character in both Wynorski films. In Hard To Die, she appeared as someone delivering Chinese food I think. Here, she's on a bench, talking to Johnson about otherworldly communication.

Proving that I paid attention big time, I noticed inconsistencies in filming. Towards the end, when the cop and Johnson hop on their vehicles, it clearly is daylight out. The scene's supposed to take place at night. The vehicles came in at night, so I guess they lost footage, and had no time, so shoot their starts during the day. There's also stock footage, an apparent staple of Wynorski and Fred Olen Ray films. The car fall and explosion, clearly stock footage. The stock footage has a pickup truck falling, Johnson was not driving a pickup truck. It's becoming more obvious to me, but it's funny.

Traci played a nurse attending to blood transfusions for Johnson. Lenny Juliano is a petty crook that becomes Johnson's butler. The two employees eventually come together when things get weird in the big Johnson household. A nice little appearance is [NOBABE]Kelli Maroney[/NOBABE], she looked so adorable in the 80s. She plays a nurse, very small role, I kinda wished she had Traci's role. Traci wasn't bad at all, and she was cute in her own right, but once Maroney popped up, I kind of lost myself from the movie. She's so nice. Traci's not a great actor, this is a B-movie though, acting mastery doesn't matter. She does very well though. I only saw her act in Zack & Miri, and she was decent on that.

I'll briefly mention Fatal Justice. So bad, it's good. Obvious dubbing, lots of stock footage, little amount of nudity, very cheap action movie. It's bad, but I love it because of that. Suzanne Ager, who co-produced it, tried to be an action chick. She tried, didn't succeed, but I still liked her. The Joe Estevez death scene was one of the longest, most drawn out one ever. Sheesh. If you look at the movie cover, it has a woman holding a gun, topless with only bullet belts covering her nipples. It's [NOBABE]Michelle Bauer[/NOBABE]. She did not appear in the film. Shucks. PM Entertainment would love this film.
 
AltarsOfLust

AltarsOfLust

Caligula, the 156 minute version, so the most uncut one available. There should be a reward for watching long movies. Quentin Tarantino doesn't count because his movies take length like it's second nature. There should also be a reward for watching this film alone, because it is filled with a lot of sleazy and violent stuff.

It's not the most hardcore of movies with sex scenes, nor is it the most violent, movies today have shattered at least the violence barrier. Even TV today, jeez I was looking at a list of gruesome TV deaths, and most of those are in shows from the 21st century. For 1979, this must've been the most vile piece of cinema ever.

It still stands in its content because of the length. This is the first time I've seen it, and I can say no movie with their own brand of sleaze and violence is this long. I'm glad I watched this in the morning. At night, I don't know if I could take it, maybe even sleeping. It's not because it's boring, it can't be given its content, just that by night time, I'm just tired.

There is lots of hardcore sex in the film, but they are spread out big time over the film. These quick shots of cocks being sucked, girls riding them, there's even some gay cock sucking. I think there's 2 gay cock sucking scenes, and there was an earlier scene that looked like a woman with a cock getting it sucked. I figured she's a transsexual, but I couldn't find anything major when searching "Transsexual Caligula." So it might've been a prop, or maybe that was a guy with long hair, so 3 gay cock sucking scenes? I don't know.

I made sure to read the IMDB trivia notes to gain some perspective. What I didn't really analyze were the editing tricks by Bob Guccione. I could sense most of the hardcore stuff were inserts. Like when Caligula (Malcolm McDowell) was walking around in a big orgy scene, he disappeared from the setting. I think, because the orgy scene lingered big time with filler coming in the form of two girls sucking a thick dick. That came off as a porn scene, especially with the cumshot.

Yeah, this is a porn movie. If cutting out all the sex, the movie probably would've been less than two house. And by "sex," not just hardcore stuff. There is some softcore stuff, especially with the cast of proper actors. Malcolm McDowell's threesome with [NOBABE]Helen Mirren[/NOBABE] and [NOBABE]Teresa Ann Savoy[/NOBABE] was certainly softcore. Some violence stuff could've been trimmed because like the sex, they just were added to make the film more edgy. When going by just the story, easily less than 2 hours.

Maybe the various cuts of the film made it so, the lowest amount I read was a bit over 90 minutes long. The story itself, watching it, is a bit straightforward. If mapping it out, but obviously the film takes so many breaks that the plot comes off as really disjointed. After watching it though, and reading the trivia for perspective, it's even more disjointed.

This must explain why Gore Vidal didn't want credit for his screenplay, it was twisted and stretched out. I read there was more of a focus for homosexuality, and in 1976, there was an advertisement thing saying Caligula is a God because he has a husband and a wife. Guccione didn't like that. Homosexuality is represented here, in quick instances, and as for Caligula, he does fist Proculus in the ass. Obviously not shown explicitly, the original scene was for Caligula to sodomize Proculus. McDowell didn't want to do it.

Speaking of him, it seemed like he was down with the film, and at least Peter O'Toole and John Gielgud were not aware of the hardcore sex being filmed. McDowell also wrote some dialogue, the nervous breakdown during the thunderstorm. He wrote that. To be specific, McDowell got along well with director Tinto Brass, Savoy worked with him before, so I assume she was fine with him, while other main cast members, not so much. Mirren and Gielgud were indifferent to him, O'Toole and Brass didn't get along with each other. Speaking of not getting along, Brass and Guccione must've been sworn enemies. Brass and Vidal apparently disowned the film, and that's because of Guccione taking liberties behind their back. Vidal disowned it because of the screenplay change of focus, and Brass because he was locked out of the editing room. Brass shot the whole film, but the hardcore sex and graphic violence stuff was put in by Guccione. While Guccione founded and owned Penthouse, I expected Tinto Brass would be fine with the hardcore inserts. Yeah he was screwed over, but the man himself filmed hardcore scenes in his own films. I figured he'd turn the other cheek. And the man sure does love cheeks. Asscheeks that is.

The plot's about Caligula's rise to power and how he maintained his power, leading to an implosion. There's a bit more to it, but overall, it's really thin because most of the content is just shock value. Whether it be the sex or the violence. And it seems cast members were aware of this being a porno. Not necessarily the hardcore variety, but IMDB listed facts like Peter O'Toole telling John Gielgud "Hello, Johnny! What is a knight of the realm doing in a porno movie!?"

Is there really a point to talk about the plot? It's sex and violence, that had to be Bob Guccione's vision. He got the final say, going over the writer and director's heads and being a very active producer. So since it's his vision, the plot is really secondary. It was pretty much a movie to sell Penthouse magazines and such. If the trivia is current, it's Penthouse's highest grossing movie. It probably would've made box office history, but it was pulled from the US theaters after a strong $20 million weekend.

So the violence. It's gory alright. Thankfully no animal deaths, at least explicitly shown ones. There was a bit where guys were holding body parts of a horse, it seemed. There was a penis getting cut off, lots of stabbing and slicing. Really, the most brutal part was the end. When Caligula and his wife Caesonia (Mirren) were killed, and their daughter too! The daughter death made me laugh. That's awful I know, but I laughed at how shocking it was. Dropped that little body on its bloodied head. Caligula was stabbed incessantly, pretty crazy. Even Peter O'Toole's death, which was suffocation, looked brutal. He played Tiberius, Caligula's older brother.


I took more notice of the sex and nudity of course. The credited actresses did go nude. Savoy, as Caligula's sister Drusilla, gets nude a lot, in an incestuous relationship. Yep, they went there too, and they couldn't be married, apparently that can only be allowed in Egypt. [NOBABE]Helen Mirren[/NOBABE] has to come in to marry Caligula, and make a child. She gets nude a bit, as she's picked up as just the whore of the city. Caligula originally wanted a virgin girl set to marry Proculus. Caligula ended up taking that woman's virginity. [NOBABE]Anneka Di Lorenzo[/NOBABE] has a hardcore lesbian scene with[NOBABE] Lori Wagner[/NOBABE]. That was the longest, and best hardcore scene in the film. That's just my opinion. Fingering, pussy licking, tit sucking, I think even a bit of a tongue on the ass! Awesome, and the scene was rather pointless, it came from the girls being horny after seeing the aforementioned threesome with brother, sister, whore wife. They didn't snitch about the scene or anything, so it really was pointless. But shit man, it was awesome.

Unfortunately Di Lorenzo didn't like the hardcore cut of her scene, claiming it ruined her career as being someone who did porn. She sued and won, but only got $4.06 as a result! Sucks, Wagner didn't get much of a mainstream career herself. She actually did porn, yay, going to have fun with that.

McDowell did go full frontal, in a comical scene where he does his march/dance thing. The rest of the nudity happened in small scenes, and big orgy ones. In those orgy scenes, so much is happening, and you see hardcore stuff in the background, and then it gets the focus. The final orgy scene was more focused on the hardcore sex than it being in the background.

I think to like this film is to enjoy the sex in it. The violence, I think anyone can take note of it. Maybe be revolted, but I was entertained, a bit shocked, but compare it to what goes on today. Today is just bonkers, but I wouldn't say it's "tame" in comparison. It's brutal alright, but I wasn't overly grossed out. If one enjoys the absurd amount of "breaks" in the plot, then the film as a whole can be thought as entertaining.

For the content, the intent to probably shock and make the viewer in awe, the movie's awesome. It's a staggering watch for sure, and probably should only be revisited just to get a good wank at the hardcore stuff. Some movies are just hard to watch twice. Like Requiem For A Dream, I only watched it once. I love the film, but I can't watch it again. Cannibal Holocaust, brilliant piece of shock cinema, but I don't want to watch it again. This film, I'd really need time away, and a lot of nothing to do in order to give this another go. First time viewing, it's great. Without all the explicit stuff, the art direction, the sets, are amazing. The cinematography captures it big time, so that's great too. So the film just looks superb. That's pretty much the only praise critics will give the film, the art direction. The costumes too, a lot of work was put into the set pieces and the costumes. A massive crew worked on the film, and even though the film is dirty, hard work is shown big time. I think it paid off, for better or worse. I loved the film, it's classic perversity.

I also revisited some classic movies of my younger years. Mortal Kombat, oh my goodness, I haven't seen that film in at least 5 years! I think even longer when it comes to the sequel, which I have a sick interest in watching now. I thought back then and thought now, the casting for the Mortal Kombatants was perfect. No doubts, no nitpicks, nothing, just perfect. Unlike Street Fighter casting a Belgian actor as a military commander from the United States. The special effects here are better than Street Fighter, which is funny to say because Street Fighter has no special effects, too much money.

I was shocked at how long the credits were in the film, 9 minutes! Like Age Of Ultron, it shows just how many people worked on the film. It really shows, because there is CG, lavish looking sets, even practical effects for good ol' Goro. Now on that, animatronics on Goro was...uhhh. Interesting. I guess Goro doesn't count for casting, it's just a voice over this big machine thing. So I can nitpick this, Goro is way too long. I don't want to say "tall" because in the games, he was tall. I mean long when compared to his width, his hulking status. He looked more like Shaquille O'Neal than he did The Hulk. I don't know, but he still got muscles, I wouldn't fuck with him. If he was real.

This is without a doubt the best video game to movie adaptation ever. I don't bother with Uwe Boll stuff or Bloodrayne, or a couple other stuff. Super Mario Bros? Ugh, I really don't want to watch that. Compared to Street Fighter, it's a much better movie on every possible level, but SF still holds up for me as a "so bad, it's good" film. It's downright hilarious, but this movie has a couple laughs here and there. I might be too nostalgic, laughing at some dumb stuff, but I couldn't help it. I absolutely love the Mortal Kombat video games, and as I'm reading imdb trivia stuff, so did Steven Spielberg! He wanted to appear in the film, but couldn't due to scheduling. This would explain the scene where a director, who looks like Spielberg, was trying to get Johnny Cage back on set. Christopher Lambert, the man perfectly cast as Raiden, loves video games himself. I dig it. On him by the way, he didn't do any fighting really, so I'm not judging him on that. As a voice of reason, a mentor, he's awesome. Oh my, he's like the white Morgan Freeman, I can hear him talk for hours. I just loved him talking in this movie, and in Mean Guns. It's those two film performances that makes me now want to give his most famous movie, The Highlander, a watch.

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Trevor Goddard were unique cases because they caused edits that worked well. For the former, he was the first and only choice for Shang Tsung, so much so the character look younger. In the games, he has gray and black hair, and was basically older. He was so fucking good in Shang Tsung, his facial expressions are classic, and his nose is like a reptile's! Man, as an adult, I can appreciate these little things more, whereas me in my kid years, it was just loving how the movie looked like the video games. On Goddard, his performance was so good that Ed Boon and John Tobias altered Kano's history. Originally he was Japanese-American, but they changed it to Australian, under the white lie from Goddard that he's an Aussie. He was actually a Brit. Well, a reverse [NOBABE]Kylie Minogue[/NOBABE] from Street Fighter, and much better. He's not in it for long, but damn was he good. Sucks to read he died a long time ago.

Robin Shou didn't want to audition, thinking he'd be cast as a stereotypical movie Asian character. His agent's advice made him reconsider. For the best, the guy is the star of the film. He was probably the most legit martial artist in the film. While I admire that [NOBABE]Bridgette Wilson[/NOBABE] did all her stunts and fights, I don't think she knew any martial arts. It shows in the film, good choreography helped. She was so young too, goddamn, born in 1973, this came out in 1995. 20 year anniversary! It was released August 18 of 1995, I should've picked up on that, I would've celebrated that day appropriately. Apparently [NOBABE]Cameron Diaz[/NOBABE] was to be Sonya, thankfully she broke her wrist. I know she did some action stuff, Charlie's Angels included, but I would not have taken her seriously. Fresh faced Wilson, I dug. Speaking of fresh faced, babyface Linden Ashby as Johnny Cage. Brandon Lee was to be that role, but he died before production, and Jean Claude Van Damme turned down the role. I can't speak on Lee, but Van Damme? Really? It had to be just because he could do the splits. If anything, the Cage character was probably inspired by JCVD, as one of Cage's signature moves is a split and punch to the balls. That was a classic moment in this film by the way.

The fight scenes still hold up. I've spoiled myself with better fight scenes and action movies, but I gave this movie a nice shake. I mean, it's very Hollywood with the slow motions and cuts sometimes right when impact happens. I still liked them, the outcomes were questionable especially with the brevity of most of the fights. For example the Scorpion fight was not too long, and Scorpion was humanized big time, despite being an otherworldly character. Sure, slice from a flaming shield, but man, a bit letdown. That's definitely stronger in the Reptile scene, which is the second best fight scene in the film. The first being the final one. Reptile dies from Liu Kang's flying bicycle kick. That's it, weird. Ah well, nitpicking, again these still hold up for me. The Goro scene even, I let go, I just don't feel like nitpicking this particular movie, when it's so fun to watch. Yeah that is short, yeah Goro falling as his fatality was ridiculous, but I won't hold it against the film.

Now I should be questioning the fact this is PG-13. Mortal Kombat is notorious for its graphic and gory content, but the film adaptations got watered down in comparison. I never minded that at all. In fact this viewing, I was wondering how it kept the PG-13 rating when there was some brutal stuff. The explosion of Scorpion? Limbs flying all over the place, the waterfall of blood or goo from his stomach? That was R-rated for me, and Shang Tsung being impaled in the end? A bit too violent. I would like an R-rated version, a big budget one, it can totally be done today. Plus Mortal Kombat X, the primary reason for me to get a PS4, is still hot, so the timing is fine.

Back to Robin Shou, it's a shame he didn't become a big star, at least in America. Paul W.S. Anderson kept using him in his later films. He was very good looking, fit, could kick ass, why didn't he blow up? Especially when Jackie Chan made waves in America, surely there would've been room for more international breakouts from the Martial Arts world. I saw him in Honor and Glory, a "so bad it's good" martial arts film with [NOBABE]Cynthia Rothrock[/NOBABE]. He was nice there, so much so I want to see the film again soon, now that he's back in my mind.

Just read that Liu Kang didn't do his special moves until he was in Outworld. Interesting, I don't know much about Mortal Kombat's lore, I only got a piece of it through Deadly Alliance, Deception, and Armageddon, and never played enough of the first couple games to read all the backstories. I assume it's accurate, Boon and Tobias were part of this film, they probably had final say in the script.

The island that hosted the tournament was real, very remote. Great then, that means the filmmakers knew location. The script had a burial scene for Art Lean. Fuck him, Goro took care of him easily. Another scripted scene, Sonya vs. Jade. That would've been interesting. I can't remember if they fought in the sequel, I remember Sonya and Mileena. How can I forget the girls getting dirty?! Literally. These scenes were never filmed. Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp were considered for Johnny Cage? Nah, Linden Ashby, he's not an action icon, but I don't think anyone could've done the role better than him. Cage was a badass, but he always came off as being funny, wisecracking, bit of a jerk. Ashby did those characteristics really well. And he fought well too. Cruise probably would've loved the fighting, Depp, too much a character actor to do a role like this. Oh and Cruise is too short. He's always too short for crying out loud.

The premise of the film was inspired by Enter The [NOBABE]Dragon[/NOBABE]. I should've noticed that while watching the film. Minimal on-set injuries, cool. Worst was Ashby's kidney being bruised. That convinced me more about Ashby, because I wanted to be sure that I was right in buying into his fight scenes. Oh nice, Ashby actually trained in karate and tae kwon do for the film. Ah man, stuntman did a lot of Cage's fighting. He was uncredited for some reason. I noticed the gymnast stuff in the Scorpion fight had to be done by a stuntman. Humorously I thought it was Kurt Thomas. Frank Welker voiced Shao Kahn and Reptile. Nice, uncredited though, so didn't catch his name. Francois Petit, the man who played Sub-Zero, was the highest ranking martial artist on set. Makes sense, his stuff was nice, but killed rather easily.

"Flawless victory" was used 4 times in the film, but only fit in 2 of those instances. Cage beating Goro and Sub-Zero beating that nameless henchmen. Liu Kang said it after beating Shang Tsung, which was weird. Unless we're going by rounds, and his comeback was Round 3. Some Asian actors auditioned for Liu Kang, one of them was Phillp Rhee, the only legit martial artist in Best of the Best. Hilarious movie by the way.

Steve James would've played Jax, but he died a year before production. That sucks, he was awesome. [NOBABE]Dina Meyer[/NOBABE] and [NOBABE]Sharon Stone[/NOBABE] were considered for Sonya. Hell no with the latter. The former, I could buy. Paul W.S. Anderson nicknamed Brigitte Wilson "RoboBabe." Funny. So the film's ending with Shao Kahn was not the original ending, that had to be to leave things open for a sequel. Unfortunately. Or fortunately, I may consider Annihilation "so bad, it's good," wait and see.

God, I didn't even notice the shield slashing death of Scorpion was clearly a Kung Lao reference. The man was barely referenced in the film, only as Liu Kang's ancestor. I think the original story was that they're brothers. Man it would've been fun to see him, hat slashing for the win.

Didn't need imdb for this, Paul W.S. Anderson's name on the credits is just Paul Anderson. I think the "W.S" was put in because just 2 years later, Boogie Nights came out. The same year as Annihilation, so to separate from Boogie Nights director Paul Thomas Anderson, in comes the "W.S." That's what I think, vice versa could've been the case for Paul Thomas Anderson.

The CG is admittedly very dated, so obvious in nearly every scene, but again, I won't nitpick. I just love the film, wearing my nostalgia glasses, but I genuinely had fun watching this again today.

The other film I revisited, after at least 3 years, First Blood. Awesome action movie, I think Stallone's performance in this one is of his best. Maybe even the best, I'm undecided, there's Rocky in the first movie to consider. It's just Rocky is an underdog, simple, and Rambo is much more complex. No doubt the monologue is Stallone's best piece of acting ever. That closing speech in First Blood was just, heavy. That's the only word I can use. Heavy. If there's a lesson to be learned in this film, other than don't fuck with Rambo, is that pride really does come before the fall. Will Teasle's pride was what got him fucked up. I don't know if he died, it looked like he did.

One thing I now picked up from this viewing, Chris Mulkey. Having seen Twin Peaks months ago, I can now say "Hey that's Norma Jennings' husband!" To go from being Rambo's victim to a prominent character in Twin Peaks. Some success there.

The perfect movie to watch after absorbing that heavy monologue, Policewomen. For some reason Amazon Prime has a 77 minute version, which must've been hacked to death. Lower quality too. I saw the uncut 99 minute version, DVD quality. God, it's so hilarious that it's amazing. 70s kung fu in America, come on, can't take that seriously unless it's Bruce Lee. The lead actress, [NOBABE]Sondra Currie[/NOBABE], who I didn't realize was the bride's mom in The Hangover, is a tiny redheaded policewoman. She's enlisted for the field after how she kicked most of the female prisoners' asses, preventing all but 2 from escaping. One of those 2 turned out to be a Secret Service agent, which makes almost no sense, it was just mentioned towards the end.

The movie is very open to its James Bond parodying, Sondra's character is named Lacy Bond for crying out loud. She is given a little makeup mirror and lighter, which have a police radio and transmitter respectively. What's not James Bond like, the fight scenes. Bless [NOBABE]Sondra Currie[/NOBABE], she is not a martial artist. Good choreography I guess, but the camera made it obvious. There are blatant cuts in a lot of impact parts. She goes in for a punch, cut and piece together the impact and aftermath. Those were two takes pieced together, not one. It's so obvious, and I guess it's just a product of cheap 70s martial arts. The tiny redhead tries, I'll give that to her, very basic, and not every blow is just cut and piece together. She did an axe kick pretty well. The best of her action came in the fight scene against the big buff Doc, who is the husband of Maude, the main villain. Maude by the way looked to have been at least 70 years old! That was so hilarious, and Doc never did anything intimate with Maude. Not even kissing. That was so weird, and downright funny. Also the exhibition with William Smith as the karate instructor, also the best from [NOBABE]Sondra Currie[/NOBABE]. I recognized Smith as Clint Eastwood's rival in Any Which Way You Can.

There was a scene where Bond, Lacy Bond, goes from her boat, to another. It was shown like she just walked on the edge of her boat, onto the other, since they're next to each other. But they're actually a couple feet far apart. They didn't even bother making that look consistent. The boat's feet apart, then inches apart for Bond to just waltz into the other boat, then feet apart again. Some serious editing gaffes here, but in the end, I love the film for these quirky and bad production things. There's a lot of skin, I originally thought it was a Roger Corman production. Currie bared her boobs and butt, awesome, but the lead up to that was just long and silly. As if an action film needed a romance angle and a musical montage. With random stuff like getting ice cream together, and riding on horses! Man, this film is just shameless, and I love it, but I have to point out these ridiculous things. Lee Frost, co-writer and director of this, looking at his filmography, jeez. Lots of exploitation and even porn stuff. This is definitely an exploitation film, with a good deal of action. The montage was a huge break from the action, which was unfortunately, but too funny to ultimately be fine with it.

So that was a lot of fun, it's an instant classic with me, instant replay. Now when I see Hangover and eventually the sequels, as I have never watched 2 and 3, I'm going to be thinking that [NOBABE]Shonda Currie[/NOBABE] should've sprung into her fighting stance. She only had one fighting stance and it looked funny. Her chops would've cut the beard off Zach Galifianakis.

I'm watching Caligula 2: The Untold Story, and a topless woman was fucking stroking a horse cock! Whoa! She did not look comfortable doing it. The horse's facial expressions were hilarious though. Bestiality, buttfucking a man with a staff, midget porn, father murdering his own daughter and wife, newborn baby killing, yeah this movie is a very interesting watch. Immediately more graphic than the first movie, and intentionally too it seems by Joe D'Amato. I've been getting into his movies, whether they're porn or proper (relatively speaking) ones. It's just a retelling of the Caligula story. Not scene for scene or story bit for story bit, just a different telling of the tale. Definitely shorter, man.

I should apologize for this very long post. Took long enough to apologize for these long winded reviews.
 
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