cult film freak

Written by James M. Tate / 11/13/2018 / No comments / 2018 , biopic , mike myers , music , rami malek

RAMBLING FACT-CHECKING REVIEW OF 'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gwilym Lee looks more the part than Rami Malek attempts it Year: 2018</u></td></tr>
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Hardcore QUEEN fans might get frustrated, or perhaps just confused, that the movie goes from the first album's "Keep Yourself Alive" to "Killer Queen," which is okay so far since QUEEN II was more progressive rock before their stardom... but then during the first tour of America, they're playing "Fat Bottomed Girls" from the latter 70's Jazz album, and that's before recording their 1975 epic "Bohemian Rhapsody" on A Night of the Opera, skipping right past the brilliant followup A Day at the Races...<br>
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And then we're at a party hearing "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" from The Game before Brian May comes up with "We Will Rock You" from News of the World years earlier, and then back to The Game with "Another One Bites The Dust," ducking under the failure of the funk-themed (and actually underrated) Hot Space album, and then playing the most famous track "Under Pressure" well after they supposedly broke up... which NEVER happened... And backing up to the repeated heckling of Roger Taylor's "I'm In Love With My Car," one of their greatest songs, ever...<br>

2018, biopic, mike myers, music, rami malek

RAMBLING FACT-CHECKING REVIEW OF 'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY'

Gwilym Lee looks more the part than Rami Malek attempts it Year: 2018 Hardcore QUEEN fans might get frustrated, or perhaps just confused...

SEAN S. CUNNINGHAM'S 'THE NEW KIDS' WITH LORI LOUGHLIN

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xjgJweaappA/W-hJYJK0psI/AAAAAAAA7VU/7JuGCNCKaY4jOqKXzldv8a-gtKnWGA6swCLcBGAs/s1600/36.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1138" data-original-width="1600" height="283" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xjgJweaappA/W-hJYJK0psI/AAAAAAAA7VU/7JuGCNCKaY4jOqKXzldv8a-gtKnWGA6swCLcBGAs/s400/36.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Lori Loughlin & Shannon Presby are The New Kids YEAR: 1985</u></td></tr>
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Sean S. Cunningham's THE NEW KIDS is a different kind of high school bully movie, especially as the two picked-on title characters, a brother and sister, fight back early on...<br>
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Sister elbows one guy in the gut and turns down two others flat as brother sneaks into group leader James Spader's house, knife in hand, mounting the rich blond bastard in his (Spader's) underwear...<br>
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That's not the only unintentionally homoerotic scene. Another bully, standing next to brother at the high school boy's room urinals, turns and, scooting extremely close, crosses streams: marking territory in a where hundreds take a piss every day... A rather odd, random choice for a supposed campus tough guy to make a point, but these kids (and the whole town) beats its own extremely bizarre drum throughout...<br>

bully, drama, eighties, eric stoltz, high school, james spader, john philbin, lori loughlin, paige price, sean s. cunningham, teen, tom atkins

SEAN S. CUNNINGHAM'S 'THE NEW KIDS' WITH LORI LOUGHLIN

Lori Loughlin & Shannon Presby are The New Kids YEAR: 1985 Sean S. Cunningham's THE NEW KIDS is a different kind of high school ...

CAINE VERSES SAVALAS IN 'BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Telly's vision above surface YEAR: 1979</u></td></tr>
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While not as bad a sequel as you might have been led to believe, BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE is so blasphemous a followup to the classic original THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, it either begs the viewer to stop watching after less than five minutes...<br>
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Or, if you have the patience and stamina to muddle past the muddled fifteen to twenty minute mark, after which, mirroring the first film in having a group of survivors... that didn't follow Gene Hackman the first time... head to the bottom that's really the top of the ship, upturned above water, only with less dangerous tiers, fewer obstacles, and a subplot involving Telly Savales doing what he did best before KOJAK made him a cool good guy...<br>

disaster, ensemble, jack warden, michael caine, peter boyle, sally field, sequel, shirley jones, telly savalas, veronica hamell

CAINE VERSES SAVALAS IN 'BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE'

Telly's vision above surface YEAR: 1979 While not as bad a sequel as you might have been led to believe, BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTU...

ORSON WELLES LONG-AWAITED 'THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Oda Kodar and Robert Random in the film's film YEARS: 1972-2018</u></td></tr>
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The anticipated Orson Welles film THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND is two pictures in one...<br>
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The first is a pseudo documentary using multiple cameras centered on veteran director Jack Hannaford, played by John Huston, at an all-night anti-wrap party where people are coming and going around a jump-cut patchwork of color and mostly black-and-white footage...<br>
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Much like Orson's buddy, Henry Jaglom's decades-later SOMEONE TO LOVE, which was the 
last movie Welles appeared in (playing himself but without his name being mentioned) and George Lucas's low-budget masterpiece, AMERICAN GRAFFITI, it's a dusk-to-dawn experience, and in this case, the two-hour run 
time can often feel like eternity...<br>

2018, counter culture, drama, gary graver, new, norman foster, oja kodar, orson welles, peter bogdanovich, pseudo documentary, seventies, susan strasberg

ORSON WELLES LONG-AWAITED 'THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND'

Oda Kodar and Robert Random in the film's film YEARS: 1972-2018 The anticipated Orson Welles film THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND is two ...

GARY KENT PLAYS A NOIRISH HEAVY IN RAY STECKLER'S 'SUPER COOL'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Ray Dennis Steckler and Gary Kent fight in Super Cool YEAR: 1969</u></td></tr>
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Film Noir/Gumshoe/Private Eye films have a main character wandering (and wondering) from one location to the next in search of something, or someone, or both...<br>
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What they get along the way are a lot of names, mostly red herrings. Sexy dames and tough broads with tougher boyfriends. Fights. Gunshots. Psychedelic drugs and heroin or...<br>
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Well the last sentence doesn't fit the Humphrey Bogart-era films, in which this was inspired all the way to director and here main star as well, Ray Dennis Steckler looking into a HIGH SIERRA poster with his image reflecting onto Bogie's. And in SUPER COOL, the real title's shown in the opening credits despite being packaged as BODY FEVER and with other names like CHEAT FOR LIFE, THE LAST ORIGINAL B MOVIE and DEADLOCKED: It's an urban/suburban odyssey of Steckler's scrawny gumshoe Charlie Smith, trying to find a missing dame, played by his real life star and perpetual ingenue Caroyln Brandt, who stole a ton of drugs (after all, she's a cat burglar who dresses like Catwoman). The best elements pit Smith against Frankie Roberts, played by Steckler's stock heavy Gary Kent (a formidable ax-murderer in THE THRILL KILLERS), who not only keeps women addicted to smack but smacks them regularly. And like those mazy Noirs of the forties and fifties, the plot is purposely convoluted: so the audience is as confused as the snoop... But the flat conclusion seems a bit forced: ending a breezy jaunt that could've gone on forever. Or at least fifteen (or ten, perhaps?) minutes longer.<br>

action, carolyn brandt, cult, exploitation, gary kent, gumshoe, independent, neo noir, ray dennis steckler, sixties, thriller

GARY KENT PLAYS A NOIRISH HEAVY IN RAY STECKLER'S 'SUPER COOL'

Ray Dennis Steckler and Gary Kent fight in Super Cool YEAR: 1969 Film Noir/Gumshoe/Private Eye films have a main character wandering (an...

JOHN CARPENTER'S 'THE FOG' HAUNTS THIS HALLOWEEN

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<tr align="center"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year of Theatrical Release for The Fog: 1980</u></td></tr>
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In a way, John Carpenter's THE FOG is a zombie flick since, like those trudging, sinewy foes, the titular weather-pattern wraiths move in a slow, nightmarish pace... <br>
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And within that titular, mobile, misty shroud are what you'd get from a good old fashion <i>ghost story</i>, which this is John Carpenter's version of, literally...<br>
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Beginning with old man John Houseman spinning a campfire legend to kids while setting the plot in motion: Their small seaport town was founded on a deception that a ship of lepers was <i>accidentally</i> destroyed by nature — with enough gold to get the town's proverbial ball rolling. And now in its 100-year centennial celebration, the wraiths, brandishing giant hooks, blades and resembling demonic fisherman with hidden hooded faces, are after exactly six people — their own unlucky number that's<i> now</i> unlucky for the surprisingly low body-count in what's Carpenter's laidback "drinking movie" of sorts... <br>

adrienne barbeau, eighties, george buck flower, ghost ship, horror, james canning, jamie lee curtis, janet leigh, john carpenter, john houseman, nancy loomis, thriller, tom atkins

JOHN CARPENTER'S 'THE FOG' HAUNTS THIS HALLOWEEN

Year of Theatrical Release for The Fog: 1980 In a way, John Carpenter's THE FOG is a zombie flick since, like those trudging, sinewy...

SUTHERLAND WITH BACON & ROBERTS DIE IN 'FLATLINERS'

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ShUITWEVqMM/W9gPsh6NR_I/AAAAAAAA7Es/eM46hIT3_Qs89kcq_henUNs-MRDF8rlpACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-28%2Bat%2B8.14.21%2BPM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="729" data-original-width="1000" height="291" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ShUITWEVqMM/W9gPsh6NR_I/AAAAAAAA7Es/eM46hIT3_Qs89kcq_henUNs-MRDF8rlpACLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-10-28%2Bat%2B8.14.21%2BPM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year of Release: 1990</u></td></tr>
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The reason FLATLINERS seems like a Brat Pack flick despite having none of those particular actors on board is because the director was also behind the pivotal pack-classic, ST. ELMO'S FIRE... And Joel Schumacher has a style of filming great-looking actors in an ethereal glow, which literally fits here being they choose to die and come back again i.e. playing God with their own bodies... <br>
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Taking place in and around various classrooms and backrooms of some kind of steely, dystopic medical school, the shadow-filled, icky-green sets seem as if a neon Gothic explosion blew out most of the lights and took down half the equipment, like Dr. Frankenstein's lab dreamed-up by Tim Burton. Which is what FLATLINERS is going for aesthetically. But it turned out more like a glossy music video, especially the choppy extreme-closeups...<br>

horror, julia roberts, kevin bacon, kiefer sutherland, nineties, oliver platt, supernatural, thriller

SUTHERLAND WITH BACON & ROBERTS DIE IN 'FLATLINERS'

Year of Release: 1990 The reason FLATLINERS seems like a Brat Pack flick despite having none of those particular actors on board is beca...

HORROR NOIR RETROSPECTIVE OF JOE DANTE'S 'THE HOWLING'

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YSbXt5HEKUk/W9U33PSV5VI/AAAAAAAA6-g/nhG_Lli870EMei8OTXXI3083vdZImAaeACLcBGAs/s1600/5.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1137" data-original-width="1600" height="283" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YSbXt5HEKUk/W9U33PSV5VI/AAAAAAAA6-g/nhG_Lli870EMei8OTXXI3083vdZImAaeACLcBGAs/s400/5.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Belinda Balaski snooping around THE HOWLING Year: 1981</u></td></tr>
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“I kind of cross this line where... I see it whether it's really 
there or not,” actress Dee Wallace wrote in a Cult Film Freak interview.
 “Kind of like the monster in the closet when we're little… You just 
know it's there, so it is.”<br>
<br>
And that’s how Joe Dante’s 
THE HOWLING begins, without seeing too much of anything – more of a 
creepy Film Noir look than outright horror flick as Dee Wallace’s Karen 
White, an intrepid anchorwoman at a local news station, has planned to 
meet a mysterious man named Eddie Quist somewhere within the shadowy 
downtown city streets... And what Karen witnesses, kept from the 
audience, really sticks with her... Thus
 the investigation trades off to snoopy reporter Terry Fisher, played by
 versatile character-actress Belinda Balaski, who, as a doomed camp 
counselor in Dante’s PIRANHA a few years earlier, resulted in a 
memorable death scene...<br>

action, belinda balaski, christopher stone, dee wallace, dennis dugen, dick miller, horror, joe dante, john carradine, kevin mccarthy, slim pickens

HORROR NOIR RETROSPECTIVE OF JOE DANTE'S 'THE HOWLING'

Belinda Balaski snooping around THE HOWLING Year: 1981 “I kind of cross this line where... I see it whether it's really there or no...

SHARON STONE IN WES CRAVEN'S 1981 'DEADLY BLESSING'

body count, colleen riley, eighties, ernest borgnine, horror, jeff east, lisa hartman, maren jensen, sharon stone, susan buckner, thriller, wes craven

SHARON STONE IN WES CRAVEN'S 1981 'DEADLY BLESSING'

Early role for Sharon Stone in Wes Craven's Deadly Blessing YEAR: 1981 Brunette beauty Maren Jensen got the bad end of the stick on ...

BURT REYNOLDS AS 'MALONE' W/ CYNTHIA GIBB & SCOTT WILSON

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Burt Reynolds and Cynthia Gibb YEAR: 1987</u></td></tr>
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Burt Reynolds had a problem in the early-mid 1980's, especially after STROKER ACE. Suddenly, he wasn't a big star anymore, and even faithful fans had pretty much had enough...<br>
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What a shame that the action driven films he turned out after his fall from super-stardom were pretty damn great, receiving little attention...<br>
<br>
These are MALONE as well as STICK, HEAT and the vastly underrated BREAKING IN. And particularly, in the cases of HEAT and MALONE, it's a shame Burt didn't realize that audiences were on to the toupee, and had been for years. Not since the second SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT has it looked so obvious, but, oh well: MALONE is a nice, tight production that's basically a remake of a classic 1950's Western. "Let's be honest," Reynolds once stated. "The film is SHANE."<br>

action, burt reynolds, cliff robertson, cynthia gibb, dennis burkley, eighties, kenneth mcmillan, scott wilson, thriller, tracey walter

BURT REYNOLDS AS 'MALONE' W/ CYNTHIA GIBB & SCOTT WILSON

Burt Reynolds and Cynthia Gibb YEAR: 1987 Burt Reynolds had a problem in the early-mid 1980's, especially after STROKER ACE. Suddenl...

POST WEEKEND REVIEW OF THE NEW 'HALLOWEEN' MOVIE

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Review of the new Halloween YEAR: 2018</td></tr>
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The new HALLOWEEN sets out to make a few things clear. Michael Myers is a human being, not an unstoppable monster that can't be killed. And if you and your date dress up as a doctor and nurse (or vice versa), like the victims of the first sequel, HALLOWEEN II, absolutely no harm will come. Because all those other incarnations mean nothing. This is the one and only followup to the John Carpenter classic...<br>
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And here's a dirty little secret not everyone agrees with. The sparse 1978 blockbuster is extremely far from perfect. But... it <i>was</i> a solid, good horror movie, and <i>was</i> genuinely groundbreaking for a body count slasher flick involving a handful of doomed teenagers, which started off an endless chain of copycats including FRIDAY THE 13TH. So where new director David Gordon Green succeeds is making a simple slasher yarn without too many extravaganzas... <br>

2018, body count, franchise, halloween, horror, jamie lee curtis, new, sequel, thriller, will patton

POST WEEKEND REVIEW OF THE NEW 'HALLOWEEN' MOVIE

Review of the new Halloween YEAR: 2018 The new HALLOWEEN sets out to make a few things clear. Michael Myers is a human being, not an uns...

BLOODY BAGFUL OF CHUCK NORRIS MOVIES REVIEWED

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Chuck's famous windshield kick from Good Guys Wear Black</u></td></tr>
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Here's a score of Chuck Norris movies from the late seventies all through his kicking-ass eighties reign. These summary-size, one or two paragraph-long reviews are a decade in the making as... <br>
<br>
Chuck Norris took Karate films to an entertainingly mindless and guttural, testosterone-driven level, and having appeared in RETURN OF THE DRAGON opposite/verses Bruce Lee, who knows where Chuck's career might have gone had the Chinese Kung Fu Master lived past ENTER THE DRAGON, but like comparing Edgar Rice Burrough's more realistic, cerebral and literary Tarzan to the spontaneous and fun theatrical Johnny Weissmuller adaptations, it's not as if Chuck took Lee's place. Instead, there was a phantom zone that desperately needed filling: Norris successfully delivered and, unlike most, maintained his American Brand of Karate to the large and small screen for nearly three decades... <br>

action, adventure, chuck norris, david carradine, donna gordon, eighties, jack o'halloran, karate, m. emmett walsh, mary-louise weller, richard lynch, seventies, sport, stephen furst

BLOODY BAGFUL OF CHUCK NORRIS MOVIES REVIEWED

Chuck's famous windshield kick from Good Guys Wear Black Here's a score of Chuck Norris movies from the late seventies all throu...

NATHAN FILLION SERIES 'THE ROOKIE' QUICK SUMMARY REVIEW

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Nathan Fillion <i>just kinda</i> headlines THE ROOKIE Year: 2018 Grade: F—</u></td></tr>
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Seconds can feel like minutes, and minutes like hours on TV, or cinema, which can carry a lot of information in a short amount of time... And five of those could have provided a montage of this 49-year-old man going from <i>wanting to 
become an old cop</i> to actually <i>becoming </i>an old cop. Random shots of basic 
training, or... something... anything...<br>
<br>
Played by a thinned-down, Jason Bateman-looking Nathan Fillion, THE ROOKIE is both an appropriate
 and ironic title, but he's on-the-beat too quick
while we're introduced to the other rookies, all the right 
young age and each resembling a magazine model (the most beautiful hopping right in bed with Fillion's unassuming John Nolan, as if he were the former star of CASTLE instead of a midlife-crisis-suffering everyman). Without a chance to really learn about this guy, the shallow and cliché co-stars are forced upon us — feeling like <i>yet another cop series</i> in an ocean brimming with them. So while being 
promised something slightly different, THE ROOKIE is more 
bland dough from the same old boring cookie cutter. And worse.<br>

2018, action, cop, nathan fillion, series, TV

NATHAN FILLION SERIES 'THE ROOKIE' QUICK SUMMARY REVIEW

Nathan Fillion just kinda headlines THE ROOKIE Year: 2018 Grade: F— Seconds can feel like minutes, and minutes like hours on TV, or cin...

DON SIEGEL VERSION OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY'S 'THE KILLERS'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dutch angle assassins Clu Gulager & Lee Marvin YEAR: 1964</u></td></tr>
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Ernest Hemingway's short story THE KILLERS is indeed quite short. Mostly taking place in a diner where two hit men are looking for a renegade who that tale's protagonist, Nick Adams, works with at the small town's gas station, this is also the prelude to the 1946 Film Noir introducing Burt Lancaster. And the 1964 version by Don Siegel couldn't be more different: although it's a theatrical remake as opposed to another literary adaptation... <br>
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John Cassavetes is the victim this time (both features create reasons for how each person acquired stolen stolen-money, which Hemingway left out), and he's one of the most original cats in crime cinema history: A hip, cocky race car driver named Johnny North, who works at a school for blind children and winds up falling dead-over-heels with mystery-blonde Angie Dickinson: the trophy dame of a millionaire gangster played by an actor about to trade show biz for politics, Ronald Reagan, and he's surprisingly effective here in a subdued, slow-burn role — except when he slaps Angie's character so hard, his tongue sticks out in delicious, envious delight...<br>

angie dickinson, claude akins, clu gulager, crime, don siegel, ernest hemingway, john cassavetes, lee marvin, norman fell, race car, ronald reagan, sixties, thriller

DON SIEGEL VERSION OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY'S 'THE KILLERS'

Dutch angle assassins Clu Gulager & Lee Marvin YEAR: 1964 Ernest Hemingway's short story THE KILLERS is indeed quite short. Most...

JACQUES TOURNEUR 'WAY OF A GAUCHO' WITH RORY CALHOUN

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Rory Calhoun rarely looks behind Year: 1952 Rates: ***</u></td></tr>
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Jacques Tourneur makes very stylish Westerns, from CANYON PASSAGE before to WICHITA after, and WAY OF A GAUCHO is about the "original cowboys," the titular Spanish Argentine bandits who "Go with God" and are as patriotic as they come, and go: Making the famous "last refuge of a scoundrel" quote more pro than con, at least for one in particular who rides in the glory of the Old Days...<br>
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That we never really learn about so we can only follow the intrepid horse-clopping footsteps of Rory Calhoun's "condor eyed" Martin Penalosa as the best scenes have our anti-hero breaking the law, sent under Richard Boone's harsh military command and eventually finding his own way. This is where things slowly collapse upon an overly grandiose soundtrack and a maze of plotlines marring what should've been a more simple, honest Western that Tourneur's good at...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gene Tierney in Way of a Gaucho RATES: ***</u></td></tr>
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Painted with broad strokes, the surrounding countrysides feel like another world entirely, so there's a Fantasy element underneath the deep brown saddles and painted red scarves, as if Penalosa's more a lean Barbarian than maverick horseman, and with Tourneur, a Gothic undertone lurks as well...<br>
<br>
But our man needed more of a goal, an urgency, than to ride along (with forced ingenue Gene Tierney when guitar-strumming Everette Sloane would've made a terrific sidekick) full of stubborn, woeful pride. Which doesn't mean the battle scenes with horses flowing along the sweeping camera isn't extremely worthwhile. Above and beyond everything else, this GAUCHO <i>looks</i> fantastic. <br>
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everette sloane, fifties, gene tierney, jacques tourneur, richard boone, rory calhoun, western

JACQUES TOURNEUR 'WAY OF A GAUCHO' WITH RORY CALHOUN

Rory Calhoun rarely looks behind Year: 1952 Rates: *** Jacques Tourneur makes very stylish Westerns, from CANYON PASSAGE before to WICHI...

ROBYN HILTON AS LINDA LOVEMAN IN 'THE LAST PORNO FLICK'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Tom Signorelli presents Robyn Hilton on set YEAR: 1974</u></td></tr>
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Robyn Hilton, best known as the ditzy redhead girlfriend of Mel Brooks' Governor in BLAZING SADDLES, goes straight to the top ten of any post here: And this movie, with a more popular title of THE LAST PORNO FLICK than THOSE MAD, MAD, MAD MOVIEMAKERS... which could lead viewers to believe there's a car chase or two... is as bad as it gets, but the actors are good — in other stuff, at least...<br>
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Another toned-down alternative is CABBIES as bickering blue collar buddies Michael Pataki and  Frank Calcanini team up with their cab company boss Mike Kellin to produce a porno, which could<i> really</i> lead viewers to think there's some nudity. That'd be too good a thing as Hilton's a satirical take on Linda Lovelace, named Linda Loveman as Sinthia as in "The Seduction of Sinthia." Tom Signorelli as that film's spaced-out hippie director nicknamed O.D. is about the only partially funny character while another backer, an extremely Catholic Italian mom, is by far the worst. But it's Hilton in her usual airhead role who stands out, and not only for the obvious reasons. She's the only person who fits the bubbly, multi-colorful mold: but with a price. In practically every shot she's standing beside butt-ugly, mackerel-faced character-actor Kellin, pretending to be a famous acting coach and she's really nuts about him — proving that she <i>can</i> act after all. <br>

comedy, exploitation, michael pataki, mike kellin, robyn hilton, satire, seventies

ROBYN HILTON AS LINDA LOVEMAN IN 'THE LAST PORNO FLICK'

Tom Signorelli presents Robyn Hilton on set YEAR: 1974 Robyn Hilton, best known as the ditzy redhead girlfriend of Mel Brooks' Gover...

FINALE OF 'BETTER CALL SAUL' IS STILL MILES FROM GOODMAN

bob odenkirk, cable, crime, jonathan banks, neo noir, rhea seeborn, rhea seehorn, series

FINALE OF 'BETTER CALL SAUL' IS STILL MILES FROM GOODMAN

Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn on Better Call Saul: Winning Turns out BETTER CALL SAUL, at least concerning Season Four, isn't follo...

SCOTT WILSON 'THE GYPSY MOTHS' REVIEW & EXTERNAL TRIBUTE

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>RIP Scott Wilson Gypsy Moths Year of Release: 1969 </u></td></tr>
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John Frankenheimer's THE GYPSY MOTHS has some incredible aerial shots, and it's a shame they had to, right off the bat, provide studio inserts of two of the actors: one who should have been famous from IN COLD BLOOD and the other soon to make his breakthrough in THE FRENCH CONNECTION...<br>
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When Scott Wilson and Gene Hackman, as the gold and white suited jumpers, are shown in an obviously contrived setting with a counterfeit sky-blue backdrop, supposedly far up and descending with their own colored parachutes open, it's impossible <i>not</i> to tell we're watching a motion picture... But Frankenheimer, in what's his personal favorite film, and, despite a dated made-for-television style main theme, gives us the impression, otherwise, that these guys are the genuine article: not only by the myriad of actual footage, but in a more harmonious, less obvious rhythm, combining these with close-up expressions of each actor, about to jump for what may be their very lives...<br>

action, burt lancaster, deborah kerr, drama, gene hackman, john frankenheimer, romance, scott wilson, sheree north, sixties, sport, suspense, william windom

SCOTT WILSON 'THE GYPSY MOTHS' REVIEW & EXTERNAL TRIBUTE

RIP Scott Wilson Gypsy Moths Year of Release: 1969 John Frankenheimer's THE GYPSY MOTHS has some incredible aerial shots, and it'...

JOHN PAYNE/PHIL KARLSON 1950'S FILM NOIR TRIPLE FEATURE

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>YEAR of Release: 1953 River Street SCORE: ****</u></td></tr>
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<u>99 RIVER STREET</u>: An excellent Film Noir, the second of three directed by Phil Karlson and starring John Payne, is bookended by two boxing matches: one in the ring, playing on television in a cheap apartment, and another in a shipyard between is a stark, mazy tale of defeated slugger/cabbie John Payne, a the stock bad girl  and then tricked by the nicer dame (Evelyn Keyes), a would-be actress proving her worth on stage in a clever scene with a big twist...<br>
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But Payne, who's the good guy but no nice guy since "he broods about things... then he explodes!" says Peggie Castle as his extremely gorgeous/and extremely cheating double-crossing wife. Although he's got far more than woman trouble with niche heavies Brad Dexter and Jack Lambert on his trail... Not to mention the law for both a murder he didn't commit and a perfectly-landed punch as the pace doesn't falter and the camerawork's topnotch. And the finale fist fight at a murky shipyard, as Payne flashes back to his fighting days, is a standout. While not a boxing Noir the likes of THE SET-UP, the character's boxing champion past is part of the essence of the story deeper than most pictures connected with the sport. It's in his mind, memories, soul. "I gotta hit... I gotta hit... I gotta go back to the one thing I know how to do!"  <br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Heist Date: 1952 Overall Score of ***</u></td></tr>
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<u>KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL</u>: The actor and director's first collaboration is a Wrong-man/Film
 Noir involving John Payne trying to redeem himself after being blamed 
for a successful armored car knockoff...<br>
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Featuring famous heavies Jack 
Elam, Neville Brand and Lee Van Cleef, it's Preston Foster's character, 
as the mysterious leader of the thugs, all gathered together in South 
America to retrieve the loot and, since they wore masks during the 
robbery don't know each other, adding dimension as he keeps the truth from
 beloved lovely daughter Colleen Gray, a law student who (along with 
Payne) figures things out: except her father's involvement. At times a 
bit sluggish, meandering within the sheer inevitability of hiding out and getting edgy and stir crazy because of it, this is a minor classic for the cast alone.<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Mary Murphy's the hypnotic ingenue on HELL'S ISLAND circa 1955</u></td></tr>
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<u>HELL'S ISLAND</u>: Much lighter, more efficient b-movie mainstream entertainment than the edgy and driven 99 RIVER STREET and especially the intentionally claustrophobic KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL...<br>
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John Payne and Phil Karlson's HELL'S ISLAND borrows from the adventure genre in its set-up of a Las Vegas bouncer sent to the title Spanish location to find a ruby, and it's rather confusing since we begin with Payne's character telling his story (and thus the overall narration) to a cop and then, during the flashback of getting the assignment we go back, again, as he discusses two time lapses at once... or something: But things get rolling, slowly but in an entertaining fashion, once the mission's underway, and one that, despite the title, doesn't have a lot of danger in store for our hero, whose main problem is getting back in touch with the dark woman (with light hair) who had broken his heart...<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PCuQqLYjCKI/W5zq0vxoHsI/AAAAAAAA5XA/MdNJHCHiCR45JKHfNWao--2LSxf7pQjvwCEwYBhgL/s1600/3%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="597" data-original-width="838" height="282" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PCuQqLYjCKI/W5zq0vxoHsI/AAAAAAAA5XA/MdNJHCHiCR45JKHfNWao--2LSxf7pQjvwCEwYBhgL/s400/3%2B2.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>HELL'S RATING: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
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And this is where the Noir element pours on: The sappy heart leading the otherwise tough guy around as he goes to various locations to gather clues in what becomes less of a plot and more a <i>Fog of Love</i> resulting in what's Payne and Karlson's weakest effort although...<br>
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This seems as intentional as a great band inserting a breezy ballad between two intense rockers (although this is their last collaboration following, in order, KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL and 99 RIVER STREET). And the look distinguishes from the other films' black and white, which of course is the Film Noir usual: This color/aesthetic is enhanced from a wonderful technology (that ranged from 1950's Alfred Hitchcock to the special effects shots in 1977's STAR WARS) known as...<br>
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fifties, film noir or melodrama, jack lambert, john payne

JOHN PAYNE/PHIL KARLSON 1950'S FILM NOIR TRIPLE FEATURE

YEAR of Release: 1953 River Street SCORE: **** 99 RIVER STREET : An excellent Film Noir, the second of three directed by Phil Karlson an...

JAMES STEWART & ARTHUR KENNEDY IN 'BEND OF THE RIVER'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Arthur Kennedy and James Stewart in Bend of the River directed by Anthony Mann YEAR: 1952</u></td></tr>
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Of James Stewart's "Cowboy Pictures" under the direction of Anthony Mann, WINCHESTER '73 is the most famous, THE NAKED SPUR his edgiest, THE MAN FROM LARAMIE the most underrated, and the most uneven is BEND OF THE RIVER, starting out as one of many wagon trailer adventures until leading to Portland, Oregon, making this a North Western much like Jacques Tourneur's CANYON PASSAGE, which this uses chopped-tree-falling stock footage of...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Julia (Julie) Adams takes a while to get the point RATES: ***</u></td></tr>
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At first Stewart, helping a group of mobile settlers, has a distracting voice. Not the usual alum-jawed, slow-paced drawl, it's more like he's imitating Edward G. Robinson. Which kinda fits. Stewart's Glyn McLyntock is a former outlaw, something we learn later after an outlaw friend, saved from a kangaroo court's noose and played by Arthur Kennedy who turns... well... that's a spoiler: What's important is that with Kennedy's initially friendly charm turned cocky bravado, BEND wouldn't be much at all. Rock Hudson as a handsome gambler adds very little...<br>
<br>
It's about Kennedy and Stewart — the latter turning into what we'd later refer to as the "Rambo" character or, before that, MR. MAJESTYK: an underrated guy who shows his resilient worth against a ton of odds and proves he's more cunning and badass than any other badass within an untamed terrain that he's become used to. A shame that it took so long for this too happen, before which we got otherwise good actress Julia Adams reacting hilariously slow to an arrow through her chest, and too many familiar character actors talking about what's about to happen. When it finally does — blink once and it's gone.<br>

action, adventure, anthony mann, arthur kennedy, fifties, james stewart, jay c. flippen, julie adams, rock hudson, western

JAMES STEWART & ARTHUR KENNEDY IN 'BEND OF THE RIVER'

Arthur Kennedy and James Stewart in Bend of the River directed by Anthony Mann YEAR: 1952 Of James Stewart's "Cowboy Pictures&q...

RICHARD FLEISCHER DIRECTS GEORGE C. SCOTT IN 'THE LAST RUN'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OQEBzhI-3xM/W69EAWosjkI/AAAAAAAA6JQ/JN4-w3b075oHZS4Zb2eNPCITABRki9lsgCLcBGAs/s1600/42808522_578633632565817_4370033686427467776_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="472" data-original-width="715" height="263" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OQEBzhI-3xM/W69EAWosjkI/AAAAAAAA6JQ/JN4-w3b075oHZS4Zb2eNPCITABRki9lsgCLcBGAs/s400/42808522_578633632565817_4370033686427467776_n.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Smoking opposites George C. Scott & Tony Musante YEAR: 1971</u></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There's something about Tony Musante that makes you want to punch him in the nose. Or if you're not the violent type — to have someone else do it. Which is perfect for an actor like George C. Scott, who didn't suffer fools and would scrap with just about anyone, on or off the set...<br>
<br>
In THE LAST RUN Scott plays an aged getaway driver hired to take an escaped convict... whom he helped escape... on a score, and the entire Spain setting takes place either in the adobe brown countrysides, painted landscapes and, there and back again, a cool blue, fishing-boat beach. The tagline states, "In the tradition of Hemingway and Bogart," but with a Jerry Goldsmith score detailed by a haunting, reposeful harpsichord, it's really more of a Spaghetti Western with sporadic bursts of action between a "two's company, three's a crowd" road trip from one double-cross to another chance to score, with some twists and turns that shouldn't be spoiled in-between...<br>

action, caper, chase, colleen dewhurst, crime, george c. scott, neo noir, richard fleischer, seventies, tony musante, trish van devere

RICHARD FLEISCHER DIRECTS GEORGE C. SCOTT IN 'THE LAST RUN'

Smoking opposites George C. Scott & Tony Musante YEAR: 1971 There's something about Tony Musante that makes you want to punch hi...

NEO NOIR DARK COMEDY CHAOS OF 'A SIMPLE FAVOR'

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QTcehE4EbNg/W7M0LM7meSI/AAAAAAAA6PA/tbDXuzEN8kYmxN5K6u208csBO1uezWZxQCLcBGAs/s1600/A-Simple-Favor-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="321" data-original-width="508" height="252" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QTcehE4EbNg/W7M0LM7meSI/AAAAAAAA6PA/tbDXuzEN8kYmxN5K6u208csBO1uezWZxQCLcBGAs/s400/A-Simple-Favor-2.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year of Release: 2018</u></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Whoever gets in the middle of a husband and wife in any kind of Film Noir... old or new; serious, comedy or somewhere in-between... is gonna go through the ringer, and that ringer is much stronger during the setup of A SIMPLE FAVOR than when Anna Kendrick's nice single widowed mother starts to figure things out about a beautiful mystery woman who mysteriously goes missing...<br>
<br>
Basically, you don't realize how good it is during the first half since it's rather dizzying figuring things out: A character-driven dark comedy by director Paul Fieg that's more SPY than BRIDESMAIDS in its maze-like plot-shifts and unpredictable twists and turns, although, like both, it centers on an unlikely friendship between two polar opposite women thrust into a circumstance beyond their control, and...<br>
<br>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l-I_YB7roqE/W7M1ABFSh1I/AAAAAAAA6PM/qcgNy_h2yGY3jqMM5x2C3A-WXsPiW9aiwCLcBGAs/s1600/A-Simple-Favor-Anna-Kendrick-Blake-Lively.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="329" height="273" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l-I_YB7roqE/W7M1ABFSh1I/AAAAAAAA6PM/qcgNy_h2yGY3jqMM5x2C3A-WXsPiW9aiwCLcBGAs/s320/A-Simple-Favor-Anna-Kendrick-Blake-Lively.jpg" width="320"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Simple Favor Score: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
Well there's a lot <i>not</i> to spoil here, which is the point of these kind of Thrillers that are equally of the Mystery genre without a handful of culprits to choose from. There are only three here that matter, and the man in the middle of these two sharp, savvy dames is much too young-looking, standard-handsome and, supposedly a once gifted writer, he doesn't seem experienced or timeworn enough to be a has-been at anything. So the girls have twice the work despite one being off screen for way too long...<br>
<br>
And with all the running around, whether A SIMPLE FAVOR needs a longer, more fleshed-out first act; a stronger, tighter second act;
 or a shorter, less meandering third act can be figured out after more than one viewing. And it's a fun, suspenseful, entertaining enough picture to catch 
again sometime. The main problem is these two very important characters, who are not only friends, but supposedly <i>best friends</i>, never had a chance to get to know each other deeply enough to make their eventual rivalry matter like it should. And as an audience, we can only care as much as they do.<br>
<br>

2018, anna kendrick, blake lively, dark comedy, neo noir, new, paul feig, thriller

NEO NOIR DARK COMEDY CHAOS OF 'A SIMPLE FAVOR'

Year of Release: 2018 Whoever gets in the middle of a husband and wife in any kind of Film Noir... old or new; serious, comedy or somewh...

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JMT

Written by James M. Tate / 11/13/2018 / No comments / 2018 , biopic , mike myers , music , rami malek

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Written by James M. Tate / 10/06/2018 / No comments / action , adventure , anthony mann , arthur kennedy , fifties , james stewart , jay c. flippen , julie adams , rock hudson , western

Written by James M. Tate / 10/03/2018 / No comments / action , caper , chase , colleen dewhurst , crime , george c. scott , neo noir , richard fleischer , seventies , tony musante , trish van devere

Written by James M. Tate / 10/02/2018 / No comments / 2018 , anna kendrick , blake lively , dark comedy , neo noir , new , paul feig , thriller

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