Topic: The little known movie review depot

[Achim]

Thanks Jon! That was very insightful.

[Najemikon]

I've always been fascinated by genre and how movies can be designed accordingly. I wish DVD Profiler was more strict on how they were entered, but most people just want to make it a local personal field to put their own in ("Schindler's List made me laugh, so it's a comedy, dammit!").

If you have any interest in the history of film, a really great DVD is "A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies". He's a motormouth at the best of times and seems to know more about movies than anyone; my wishlist about doubled after watching it! The first section is about genre and I never would have guessed, but comedy and gangster movies both came from musicals! Listen to the rhythm of dialogue in early examples of either and you can see why James Cagney, singer and dancer, became public enemy number 1...

[Jimmy]

Are you categorizing the genres in the movies you review? I find it interesting that this one is listed as a Comedy.

Sorry if I'm late to answer, but I have an excuse : I was absent today, because it was the birthday party of my little niece and she didn't want to let me go untill now.

For me a comedy doesn't need to make me laugh to the beginning to the end (Is it possible? except for Airplane). If a movie make me smile because of the situation or the screenplay it's a comedy. This is more the interaction between the 4 protagonist who make this a comedy. The official genre classification for this film is "drama", but I don't agree with this at all. There nothing dramatic in it, the game is played as something funny and everyone enjoy it.

The other possibility for a genre is "adult", but this is not really an adult films (the theme is not for the kid, but this is not "The adventure of Butman 26).

So it can't be an adult movie (not pornographic) and not a drama (nothing made me cry in it). But, the movie made me smile so, for me, it's a comedy.

[Achim]

If you have any interest in the history of film, a really great DVD is "A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies". He's a motormouth at the best of times and seems to know more about movies than anyone; my wishlist about doubled after watching it! The first section is about genre and I never would have guessed, but comedy and gangster movies both came from musicals! Listen to the rhythm of dialogue in early examples of either and you can see why James Cagney, singer and dancer, became public enemy number 1...

I own that already! IIRC it was basically a recommendation  from James. He also made the same comment about a rather quickly growing Wish List while viewing it Guess it's about time I go ahead and watched it. (The current Academy Awards Marathon makes me watch a lot of my DVD with old movies, which I enjoy a lot and basically now look for inspiration what more to get.)

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: The Brides Wore Blood
Year: 1972
Genre: Horror
Director: Bob Favorite (Indian Raid, Indian Made)         
Rating: Unrated
Length: 1h24
Video: Full Frame
Audio: English
Subtitles: No Subtitle

Stars:
Dolores Heiser
Paul Everett
Bob Letizia
Chuck Faulkner
Jan Sherman   

Plot:
The 1970's are back in this hip hop and hapennin' of retro tale of drugs, vampires and exorcisms.
Girls are invited to a crappy mansion in Florida only to become blood-sucker bait for a centuries old demon who wants to be your daddy !

My Thoughts:

I got this one by error, because I've made a title error after I've seen the trailer for a movie that was looking interesting. Finally I got the good one (The Blood Spattered Bride), but not before another title error order (Blood Castle) it's something frequent with European movie since they are known under many different titles. I've keep the DVD, because it was my error and maybe the movie will be interesting.

The story looks promising : a vampire curse runs in a familly and for defeating it a girl must be made pregnant by the the older vampire son. When the child is born the curse is defeat. This is not really original, but it's enough to make something not so bad. The end result is not good at all, the problem start with the cast : everyone is untalented (nobody have done anything before or after that), they miss their line and most of the time doesn't know how to react. The story is confusing, they mix too many thing (vampires, an hunchback (that or a drunk guy, this is not really evident by the way he act), an hairy beast (why they had it in the basement is unclear), a medium woman (the majority of what she said make no sense),...

Don't waste your time with that. Even the vampire look is ridicule (just look at the screen capture that I've attach to my post)

Rating : 
Movie Trailer : No Trailer

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: The Beast That Killed Women
Year: 1965
Genre: Nudie-cutie
Director: Barry Mahon (P.P.S. - Prostitutes Protective Society)         
Rating: Unrated
Length: 1h00
Video: Full Frame
Audio: English
Subtitles: No Subtitles

Stars:
Byron Mabe (The Defilers)
Dolores Carlos (A Taste of Blood)
Darlene Bennett (Olga's Girls)
Gigi Darlene (White Slaves of Chinatown)
June Roberts (The Sin Syndicate)   

Plot:
A Miami nudist camp is invaded by The Beast that Killed Women, a gorilla with an appetite for the ladies. Murder and panic quickly spread before a pretty policewoman volunteers to enter the camp as ape bait.

My Thoughts:

This movie was made at a time when nudity was not permited on screen by the different censor board, but the nudist colony pictures were ok since a New-York court judgement about the movie « Garden of Eden » rules that a movie that promoting nudism wasn't obscene. This is how to view and understand those films : they were the way to show woman nudity on screen legally more than forty years ago.

With this film Barry Mahon mix the nudist colony picture and the horror picture. Don't expect a great horror movie, this is just a silly man in a gorilla suit movie. But it's really a fun movie. Byron Mabe is the only good actor in it, but it's not really important. If you are a regular watcher of this genre of movie you will see many familiar faces and finaly you see them in color. The story is simple : the gorilla attack two women and the police kill it at the end. The rest of the screen time is fill with the nudists doing their things (playing volleyball, dancing, swimming and talking in bed).

If you want to pass an hour in front of your TV without thinking too much and seeing some beautiful and natural looking woman (and some men bottom), this is the movie for you. Even if you see a lot of nudity in the movie nothing is really shocking in it, they only show breasts and buttocks.

Rating :   

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

                 

Title: She Demons
Year: 1958
Genre: Horror
Director: Richard E. Cunha (Missile to the Moon)         
Rating: Unrated
Length: 1h16
Video: Widescreen
Audio: English
Subtitles: No Subtitles

Stars:
Irish McCalla (Sheena: Queen of the Jungle – TV series)
Tod Griffin (She Devil)
Victor Sen Yung (Kung Fu – TV series)
Rudolph Anders (Phantom from Space)
Gene Roth (Attack of the Giant Leeches)   

Plot:
A hurricane shipwrecks an expedition of American treasure-hunters on an uncharted Pacific island. Searching for food, the Americans happen upon a secret Nazi base where a sadistic scientist is conducting experiments on a tribe of local jungle maidens. Horrific experiments mutate the island beauties into hideous, savage she-creatures!

My Thoughts:

We are on fifties B-movies territory with this one. We start with 4 shipwreck survivors, all of them are one stereotype : an all-american man, a rich spoil woman, a comic relief asian man and a black man (who is doom from the beginning and is the only one to die). But the stereotype don't stop with them since they are not the only one on this island. So we have the natives women who don't do nothing except a native dance. The rest of the people are escape German nazi with really funny accent, the way they are represented make me wonder how it was possible for them to win a single battle (they are really presented as caricature).

The story is stupid : the German doctor was working on a way to remove scar, because the Aryan as to be perfect (I don't invent that it's the doctor who say that). So they are gone on a volcanic island to experience, the method is a blood (??) transfer but the donor receive blood and animal DNA (something like that). This procedure transform the donor to a she-demons for a couple of days, after that she returns to normal but doesn't have any memory at all (I don't invent that either, the doctor explain it). The story continue untill the nazi doctor try the experience on the white woman, but at this moment the island come under shellfire (why? No idea the war is over for quite some times) and the three survivors escape. I've forgot something : the all-american man and the rich spoil woman fall in love even if they hate each other at the beginning.

The acting are not really good, except for Irish McCalla (enough to make me interested in her TV series, but it is not release yet and will probably never been). The make up effect for the She-demons are well done and the filming location look good too.

I don't necessary think that it's a bad movie, but many others b-movies of this time are better than this.

Rating : 
Movie Trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV82_LkAjZY

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

                 
                  DVD Cover                                                Theatrical Poster       

Title: Blackwoods
Year: 2002
Genre: Thriller
Director: Uwe Boll (BloodRayne)         
Rating: Unrated
Length: 1h32
Video: Full Frame
Audio: English
Subtitles: No Subtitles

Stars:
Patrick Muldoon (Starship Troopers)
Keegan Connor Tracy (Final Destination 2)
Will Sanderson (BloodRayne)
Michael Paré (Eddie and the Cruisers)   
Clint Howard (Ice Cream Man)

Plot:
A tragic accident leaves a young girl dead. The man responsible goes free. But for the victim's family, no crime goes unpunished.

Pursued by a family thirsty for vengeance, Matt (Patrick Muldoon) tries to escape to the Blackwoods. But escape is never that easy.

My Thoughts:

I don't think that it will be a surprise for anyone if I say that I'm a fan of Uwe Boll. I find all the critics on the web from the wanabe IMDB reviewers and the other like them pretty ridicule and childish. If not explain to me how someone can rate and review a movie who is not even release yet? The more recent exemple is Seed : will be release only in the month of march in North America, played at 4 European festivals and was released at the end of november in Germany. More than thousand peoples who frequent IMDB have already seen it... Don't make me laugh! In fact, the only movie that I've seen so far directed by him who is really bad is « Alone in the Dark ». Yes, I've seen « House of the Dead » and I find it better than « Resident Evil » and as good as « 28 Days Later » (but I find the video game segment stupid). It's pretty evident that whatever he direct will never get a fair review. Ok, enough ranting I go on with my review.

Blackwoods is the second North American movie directed by Uwe Boll after « Sanctimony » that i've not seen yet. This movie is a good film about the way we escape our crime and the consequence that we have to go through. The story is well construct and they are a logic follow from the beginning to the end (many fact are clearer at the end), every little details are important and have a reason to happen. Muldoon is perfect in the lead and it's hard to understand why is career never really take off, Paré and Howard are reliable as usual, Keegan Connor Tracy is surprising, but Sanderson is waste and doesn't have too much to do. As usual Boll use a lot of camera trick (slow motion, rapid flashing image and fuzzy image), but those tricks are not done without reason like in « Alone in the Dark ». The end is great and take the viewer by surprise (don't read this if you want to see the movie, it's the end)

(click to show/hide)

Everything happen in Muldoon head, the girl he is with is the girl he has killed in the previous accident. That's why everyone look him like he is crazy. The familly is gone from a long time and he is the one who injure himself

If you want to see a proof that he is a good director forgot the Boll-bashing and give this film a chance, by the way the price is really low. This is the better movie directed by Uwe Boll that I've seen untill now. One last thing : It's important to buy the « Velocity » release, because the other one is defective (the last chapter doesn't work).     

Rating :   

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: The Amazing Transplant
Year: 1970
Genre: Crime Mystery (this one is not easy to set)
Director: Doris Wishman (Double Agent 73)         
Rating: Unrated
Length: 1h11
Video: Full Frame
Audio: English
Subtitles: No Subtitles

Stars:
João Fernandes (Submission)
Linda Southern (Love-In '72)
Larry Hunter (Olga's Dance Hall Girls)
Kim Pope (Through the Looking Glass)
Janet Banzet (A Thousand Pleasures)   

Plot:
Amorous Artie is not your average ladies man. For years, the guy couldn't even get a date. Now, however, formerly dorky Arthur has become a sex-crazed lunatic who murders at the mere sight of cheap gold earrings on cheap cold women.

My Thoughts:

Doris Wishman was one of the rare woman who has directed movie in the exploitation fields, in fact the only other one that I can think of is Roberta Findlay. In this one who got all the distinctive trait of her work : a lot of feet shot, close-up on weird thing (couch, radio, ...) for no reason, the person on screen is not the one who talk but the person who react and the majority of the actor voice are replace.

This movie had probably the most bizarre motive that I've seen and I have watched a girl poison by a cat paw, a man sex-kill by four women and a killing turkey-man. The killer in this movie act this way because he had received a transplantation, not that bizarre but ... This is a penis transplant and the previous owner of the male organ has a fetish. He was attracted by the women with golden earings and this fetish came with the gift.

The good thing about this movie is the fact that it was filmed at New York, so many Michael Findlay regular are in this. Just to name the women : Janet Banzet (usually credited as Marie Brent), Alice Grant, Linda Boyce and Uta Erickson (I love this woman). I like the fact that the movie switch to B/W for a flasback scene before the operation, a trio fake sex scene with Boyce and Erickson (she is so sexy in B/W). Sure the dialog make no sense, the dubbing is apparent and the story motive is ridiculous, but I like this movie.

If you are not familiar with the work of Doris Wishman this is not the one to watch first (a little bit too bizarre). « Nude on the Moon » is a better way to start, I will certainly review it later when I will rewatch it. 
 
Rating :   

Edit : Just notice the the original running time was 1h20, so there a lot of cut on this release (unusual from SWV). From the trailer it's evident that the operation is cut and a lesbian scene between Janet Banzet and Alice Grant are missing.

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Sorry if this one takes more time than usual, but for this experience I need to have almost 4 hours of free time. You probably ask yourself what I'm talking about. This is what is call a drive-in experience and what is this : 2 movies, a lot of trailers, intermission short and drive-in announcement. For this one I will make it differently, I hope that you will appreciate.


It's saturday night and what's better than going to our local drive-in (a lot more, but we are in the year 1968). After a look of what play tonight we decide to go see the new Hershell Gordon Lewis movie and the second feature is one of his other movie from last year.

Our program for tonight


We arrive at seven o'clock, a little bit soon but we have to find a good place to park the car. We are not the first here, but the place is good. So we install the speakers on the car and we wait (I'm with my girlfriend, so use your imagination).

Finally it start, it was about time the clients were starting to be impatients. No, we have seven minutes of publicity to listen. This is for the refreshment stand and this make me hungry. Gaze at hot dog, hamburger, fries, chilly dilly (a big pickle ) and Italian meatball sandwich for seven minutes have this effect on me. So after my visit at the concession stand I'm 5$ short (don't forget we are in 68). I came with this too, it looks like something fun to play with



Not ready yet, we have to watch the trailers. This is what will come in the next week at the drive-in...

Just for the hell of it (This is the one that we will see tonight)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa0NLqqh81U
The Gore gore girls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SoFUY2Zl4w
Suburban roulette
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpOU2IjBKJc
Something weird
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62stnXLA-Uw

Except for « Suburban roulette » I have already seen the others. But this movie seems interesting and Bill Kerwin is in it, so I keep this one in mind.

Finally the first film start

Ray Sager (The Wizard of Gore) and Rodney Bedell (The Gruesome Twosome) are good in the lead role. Sager as the bad guy and Bedell as the good guy. This is a little movie that doesn't ask you to think, it promise teenager out of control in the trailer and that's what we got. The teenage gang beats a blind guy with is walking stick, beats one man with is crutch, throws a baby in the garbage, ... Why they do that? Just for the hell of it, they have nothing to do. It have a story between the good and the bad guy, but that's not really important. So this one was fun, but the theme song (who play over and over) was really tough to support.

We are at the intermission and for almost 30 minutes one man try to sell some books about the facts of life (read sex education book). So I decide to buy the two books (one for me and the other for my girlfriend), how can I say no to a book who promise to tell me what to do at my honeymoon. After that we have a boring short film with 2 half-naked dancing girls, if you have seen « Orgy of the Dead » you have an idea of what it is.

It's trailer time strike two : what we got this time

The blast-off girls (the next film)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEG1dAHNz7Y
This stuff'll kill ya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivefd0I3eHk
Year of the yahoo!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfklOMMHXkA 
   

After that the final film start.

In this one we have a musical band (a real garage band « The Faded Blue ») who are rip off by their manager (a good performance by Dan Conway). The music is good (sound like any « British Invasion » band) and it's fun to watch something almost real. So many band were steal by their manager or their record company like Bad Company or The Bay City Rollers just to name two exemples. This is another good movie who doesn't ask you to think too much.

Finally after four hours it's over, but not before we have this on the screen




It's better to not forget the speakers, the management is really serious about this

I hope that you have appreciate this one. The program (DVD) was exactly like this, except for the girlfriend part. This is one of the early release of « Something Weird Video » who is my favourite DVD company. The real DVD is this one



It is OOP but you can buy it for a good price at Amazon Marketplace

Rating : 

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Snowballin'
Original Title: Après-ski
Year: 1971
Genre: Comedy
Director: Roger Cardinal (Au nom du père et du fils – TV series)         
Rating: Unrated
Length: 1h12
Video: Full Frame
Audio: English
Subtitles: No subtitles

Stars:
Daniel Pilon (Le Viol d'une jeune fille douce)
Mariette Lévesque (Tanya's Island)
Céline Lomez (Gina)
Janine Sutto (Symphorien – TV series)   
Angèle Coutu (Jamais deux sans toi – TV series)

Plot:
A ski instructor gives "private lessons" to a group of beautiful snow-bunnies and soon finds that his techniques keep him very busy on and off the slopes. His personal attention and devilish good looks bring his students running to him long after classes are out eagerly willing to display their own special talents.

My Thoughts:

At the beginning of the seventies after the success of Valérie in 1969 the French Canadian film industry enter in its exploitation phase. What a great period it was with some of the most sucessfull French Canadian movie ever made, just to name some of them (sorry for those who have no idea what I'm talking about) : L'initiation, Gina, Les Mâles and Deux femmes en or (this one was the French Canadian box-office record holder for a very long time). The great beauty of the French Canadian girls (Céline Lomez was one of the most beautifull French Canadian woman to appear on the screen) was certainly a good factor in these success.

The one that I review today is best known here for one reason : it's one of the biggest box-office failure in our industry, it was made for 800 000$ (a big amount for a Canadian movie at this time) and collect almost no money. Now, it doesn't hold the record anymore since a biggest failure came in 1996 : Angelo, Fredo et Romeo (sorry Touti and RossRoy for the bad memory).

Now I have to go on angry mode a little bit

[Angry mode on]I hate the fact that the Canadian cinema industry is ashame of its exploitation period. The majority of those films are not available on DVD or VHS, in my best knowledge only « Valerie » and « Gina » are on DVD and they are not subtitle and after that they ask themselves why our cinema doesn't work outside of the Province of Quebec. Do you find it normal that I've to buy a French Canadian film from an American store because the Canadian industry refuse to re-release it? My answer no! [Angry mode off]

This is a movie that I've seen the first time more than 20 years ago at a paying movie channel (my countrymen surely remember TVEC) and immediatly like it. The theme song is great (Après ski c'est l'amour avec toi dans le creux de tes bras,  Après ski c'est l'amour jusqu'au lever du jour ) and the woman who sing it have a familliar voice but I can't remember her name, you have no choice but to sing along. You have a lot of familiar faces in second role : Pierre Labelle, Jacques Desrosier (Patof!!), Robert Demontigny (a French Canadian singer), Francine Grimaldi and Mr. Popol himself Roger Michael in a funny performance as a newly married man (his wife end in the bed of one of the instructor, but it's not a surprise if you remember what Roger Michael looks like). For the non French Canadian this is someone that you'll certainly recognize (A hint : his woman is the most sucessfull french canadian singer actually even if I find her boring)



But the DVD have a real big problem : This is not the original version. The version that I own is the very badly cut US one and more than 30 minutes is missing. Because of that the story doesn't make sense anymore and, worst the movie is dub in english and because of this all the comic timing of Labelle and Desrosiers is missing. That's why my rating will be low, because the original version of this film is really great.
 
Rating : 

[Achim]

Title: Snowballin'

Well, maybe a weird question, but since it's exploitation I'll ask:

I remember that they explained in Clerks what "snowballing" means... Is that what this film is about?

[Jimmy]

Title: Snowballin'

Well, maybe a weird question, but since it's exploitation I'll ask:

I remember that they explained in Clerks what "snowballing" means... Is that what this film is about?

I don't remember for Clerks, but probably not. This film is about a ski resort and what happen outside of the skiing sport (they just show one competition and it's pretty awfull). You have the group of instructor who pass the time going from one woman to another at the resort. The focus of the story is on Daniel Pilon, the new instructor, and the way he use to get in the bed of 3 of the guests : Coutu (a rich girl), Lévesque (a supermodel) and Lomez (an international film star). So you get a lot of fake sex and ski doo riding (they were really ugly at this time).

A simplier way to answer : it's the movie "Ski school", but more adult and serious (not that much, but less childish).

[Najemikon]

Have you seen any of the "Confessions of a ..." films? A British series of films that took the basic Carry On formula into less innocent times! They all featured Robin Askwith.

There is an interesting comment on that page about Quentin Tarantino, which was most unexpected! Also, if you follow the link on there for the first film, Confessions of a Window Cleaner, you might appreciate the retrospective quote from the Daily Mail: "from the darkest days of British cinema" 

The Daily Mail is not known for balance and subtlety! 

[Jimmy]

Have you seen any of the "Confessions of a ..." films? A British series of films that took the basic Carry On formula into less innocent times! They all featured Robin Askwith.

The series is unknown to me, but looking at the synopsis it certainly looks like something that I could like. The series doesn't look available on DVD, am I right?

Robin Askwith is in my favourite Pete Walker movie's (Cool It Carol!), so he is not unknow to me. 

"from the darkest days of British cinema" : this quote who is probably negative is a seller for me