cult film freak: 2015

Written by James M. Tate / 12/30/2015 / No comments / bruce dern , ensemble , jennifer jason leigh , michael madsen , mystery , quentin tarantino , samuel l. jackson , tim roth , walt goggins , western

QUENTIN TARANTINO'S WESTERN ENSEMBLE 'THE HATEFUL EIGHT'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>year: 2015 cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Walt Goggins, Jennifer Jason Leight director: Quentin Tarantino</u></td></tr>
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Will attempt not to spoil too much about this epic yet contained and intentionally claustrophobic Western by Quentin Tarantino, but that's after having to disclose it's only a Western in the Civil War time period, rural-rough location, dramatic score, and dusty, cut-throat characters. THE HATEFUL EIGHT is really a Mystery, and for the most part, could have been set in any century involving an eclectic roomful of people, and, as already known/shown in the Samuel L. Jackson-led expository trailers, somebody's not who they're supposed to be.<br>

bruce dern, ensemble, jennifer jason leigh, michael madsen, mystery, quentin tarantino, samuel l. jackson, tim roth, walt goggins, western

QUENTIN TARANTINO'S WESTERN ENSEMBLE 'THE HATEFUL EIGHT'

year: 2015 cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Walt Goggins, Jennifer Jason Leight director: Quentin Tarantino Will attempt not to sp...

CONNECTING THE UNCONNECTED TROLL WITH TROLL 2

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Connecting Troll 2 to the unconnected Troll</u></td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>WHERE TROLL AND TROLL 2 COLLIDE:</b></span> The first venture is simple and entertaining enough...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">T2 Poster</td></tr>
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Charles Band’s TROLL centers on a family moving into an apartment building that winds up being taken over by a bevy of creatures led by one particular Troll, wanting his old magical kingdom to reign once again. And the more famously infamous sequel is awful and beloved for that reason, making the original fairy tale homage an all but forgotten franchise footnote while inspiring a documentary titled BEST WORST MOVIE (that features yours truly as a script writing fan) centering on the immense ever-growing cinematic phenom known as TROLL 2, originally titled GOBLIN… indeed centering on Goblins, not Trolls… And the sequel supposedly had nothing to do with TROLL, a name thrown in at the 11th hour for distribution reasons, as if TROLL had an actual following… And yet, while revisiting the first movie, which actually isn’t that awful, there were many similarities for two projects that supposedly only had a title in common... So as you'll see the comparisons, the original TROLL is pictured on the left, while cult-phenom TROLL 2's on the right...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Troll Manor Font</td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>OPENING CREDIT FONT AND SPOOKY MANOR:</b></span> The opening credits in either film is almost exactly the same, a Goth aesthetic appearing with a brooding score and a large spooky dark house serving as a sinister backdrop…</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Spooky Font</td></tr>
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Both movies have formidable looking manors yet only TROLL 2 uses their location throughout. The original manor is hidden by the apartment house that it would become, and ultimately attempt to change back into. And the T2 title sequence cuts literally to the chase, showing a horde of goblins running wild: One main difference in the credits are, of course, the names: the original has real actors the likes of Michael Moriarty, Shelley Hack, Sonny Bono, and others mentioned further in, while the super low-budget sequel is full of no-names, including a real life dentist; all were completely unknown and never heard of again until the documentary brought their unprofessional brilliance to light.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Apartment</td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>F</b><b>AMILY OF FOUR MOVE INTO A NEW LOCATION:</b></span> The primary plot has a family moving into a new residence…</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nilbog Trade Home</td></tr>
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In TROLL, the happy clan of four move into an apartment building that winds up becoming Troll Central…</div>
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But TROLL 2 would have nothing that basic… Instead, the Italian writer of the film might have thought families swapping houses from the suburbs to the sticks was a normal thing in America: Thus the Waits Family lets a local clan of NILBOG (Goblin Spelled Backwards) live at their home while they move into the rural homestead, and the adventure begins.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NH as Harry Potter</td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>MAIN CHARACTER IS A CURIOUS YOUNG BOY:</b></span> That billionaire British Fantasy author didn’t invent Harry Potter, the name…</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joshua in TROLL 2</td></tr>
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He is in fact the moniker of both Noah Hathaway’s character and his father… Harry Potter Sr. and Harry Potter Jr. might not be altogether mystical, but the son knows how to fight against magic like the latter spectacled icon knew how to wield it…</div>
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Cast as the original intrepid youngster, child and teen actor Noah Hathaway was no slouch. He played Boxey on the original BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and is best known as Atreyu in THE NEVERENDING STORY… And in TROLL 2, the little boy, Joshua, is played by Michael Stephenson, not an altogether horrible child actor yet not established before or after: That is until his brilliant BEST WORST MOVIE provided a worthy day job as a damn fine filmmaker.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dungeonmaster Fan</td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>THE BOY’S ROOM IS A CARNIVAL OF PRODUCT PLACEMENT:</b></span> Each boy’s room is full of product placement ranging from superheroes to sport icons…</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Basketball Lamp</td></tr>
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The TROLL 2 kid has a basketball lamp and a cartoon Joker poster while the original has a movie poster of DUNGEONMASTER and a Dallas Cowboys flag… Very eclectic, these two…</div>
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Although the teen sister from TROLL 2 has them both beat… Her room wields images of movie heartthrob Tom Cruise and future cinema darling Johnny Depp in his 21 JUMP STREET television days… How either low-budget vehicle was able to afford all this junk is beyond perplexing, but it’s nice eye candy for viewers, providing glimpses into a pop culture past.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jenny Back in T1</td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>SISTER IS SULLEN AND GROUCHY:</b></span> The sisters are both bitches, in their own way, and can’t be more different despite their bitter expressions and contempt for their siblings…</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Connie Young in T2</td></tr>
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The TROLL 2 sister/daughter, played by Connie Young, is much older than her little bro, and is really just a moody teen who wants her boyfriend along for the trip, and is altogether embarrassed about her family in general… But the more important TROLL girl, played by V: THE FINAL CHAPTER Star Child Jenny Beck, holds the real cards, plot-wise, being possessed by the Troll early on, and then showing her false colors throughout, making her a cross between Linda Blair and Frankenstein's Monster.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kitchen Ouchy</td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>KID BLAMED FOR DOING SOMETHING RUDE AT THE KITCHEN TABLE:</b></span> In TROLL 2, Jenny Beck’s Troll-possessed Wendy Anne Potter winds up taking a bite out of her brother's arm...</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A pissed idea</td></tr>
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Despite the bloody proof, she only almost gets in trouble; somehow Harry seems more paranoid than an actual victim of sibling rivarly… And once again, TROLL 2 trumps anything that normal as young Joshua winds up taking a “piss on hospitality” to keep his family from turning into goblins, providing a golden shower onto their green morning bagels; strategically placed for an otherworldly changeling that doesn't occur thanks to the brilliance of the little squirt… pun intended.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N3M0RuqrriI/VoQfEXHscpI/AAAAAAAAqLU/ozds28qpNIs/s1600/13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N3M0RuqrriI/VoQfEXHscpI/AAAAAAAAqLU/ozds28qpNIs/s200/13.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moriarty & Hack</td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>OBLIVIOUS PARENTALS:</b></span> The parents in each film are both friendly, loving, completely dumbfounded and unaware of anything nefarious happening. And yet their children are completely aware of the ongoing nightmare, and fully experience it…</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Goblins?"</td></tr>
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That is, until the end when everyone realizes the situation and must battle the evil forces together…</div>
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In the original, the otherwise talented, highly regarded method actor Michael Moriarty plays Harry Potter Sr., and his wife Anne was a final season CHARLIE'S ANGELS starlet and a worthy KING OF COMEDY alumni, Shelley Hack… Meanwhile, TROLL 2 parents George Hardy and Margo Prey aren't exactly members of the Actor's Studio while Moriarty, during one scene while dancing to the sonic BLUE CHEER version of SUMMERTIME BLUES, seems to be playing camp on purpose like he did in Larry Cohen's Q: THE WINGED SERPENT and THE STUFF a few years earlier.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scared but not really</td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>YOUNGEST CHILDREN ALONE IN A DARKENED BEDROOM:</b></span> This only counts in a technical sense and isn’t geographically correct since when TROLL 2 kiddo Joshua is staring out from his bed sheets...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vI4qmeEVWcs/VoQffNnMJbI/AAAAAAAAqLs/W8Veyk_f5tU/s1600/18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vI4qmeEVWcs/VoQffNnMJbI/AAAAAAAAqLs/W8Veyk_f5tU/s200/18.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't Look Outside, Joshua</td></tr>
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He’s in his real home and not the central spooky location that his family moved into during the mysterious swap: while the other family surreptitiously remains in NILBOG, which Joshua would learn later on... While in the original, Jenny Beck’s bedroom stare isn't really that of fright, but more fitfully curious, as this is the important money-shot when she gets possessed by the Troll in the first place.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7PB5T3HgKiI/VoQfnG_gLaI/AAAAAAAAqL0/ubYH28LRznY/s1600/19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7PB5T3HgKiI/VoQfnG_gLaI/AAAAAAAAqL0/ubYH28LRznY/s200/19.jpg" width="176" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Troll Main Troll</td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>THE MAIN TROLL IS A LITTLE PERSON IN A COSTUME:</b></span> The chief troll in TROLL is not only more legitimate since he is, in fact, a TROLL, but he’s an important vessel that drives the story…</div>
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<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="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BDab8eIq_nM/VoQfscGGrRI/AAAAAAAAqL8/aefMk9ZJa6A/s1600/20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BDab8eIq_nM/VoQfscGGrRI/AAAAAAAAqL8/aefMk9ZJa6A/s200/20.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Troll 2 main Goblin</td></tr>
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Phil Fondacaro plays both Torok the Troll and the most endearing character, a kindhearted Little Person who, stricken with a fatal disease, befriends the cursed young daughter, who sees potential in his “shortcomings” as a doomed human to be a perfect fit for the progressing Troll-Land canvas… Meanwhile in TROLL 2, the main GOBLIN somewhat resembles Torok only more menacing, bloodthirsty, ultra low-budget and, speaking with the voice of a retarded ten-year old, doesn’t have an agenda other than making people turn green so he and his sinister crew can have an endless feast.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f1INhg2QvPw/VoQfzPRZz-I/AAAAAAAAqME/8-bUIdQeGj8/s1600/21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f1INhg2QvPw/VoQfzPRZz-I/AAAAAAAAqME/8-bUIdQeGj8/s200/21.jpg" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">June Lockhart</td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>THE OLD TROLL QUEEN:</b></span> There are two queens in both TROLL films… And they are still one person… The first is old and the other is a younger version...</div>
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<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="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sKZWJ1D7HOQ/VoQf3OoRGZI/AAAAAAAAqMM/DiwFhVqdZeo/s1600/22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sKZWJ1D7HOQ/VoQf3OoRGZI/AAAAAAAAqMM/DiwFhVqdZeo/s200/22.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Evil Troll Queen</td></tr>
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Especially in the original where LOST IN SPACE veteran June Lockhart’s Eunice St. Clair has a special bond with the other dimension even before it takes over, being part of a Medieval style backstory, and she owns the R2D2 of the movie – a cutesy mushroom plant that tugs at the heartstrings… That’s the contrived attempt, anyhow… Meanwhile, the TROLL 2 villain is played over-the-top and jovially insane by the lovely Deborah Reed who, in true Queen form, is not beautiful but a gruesome hybrid of the aforementioned EXORCIST Linda Blair and some sort of campy witch in a local small town theater… </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bus455M_y1w/VoQgCRBBAhI/AAAAAAAAqMc/CtA353E2mzE/s1600/23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bus455M_y1w/VoQgCRBBAhI/AAAAAAAAqMc/CtA353E2mzE/s1600/23.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anne Lockhart</td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>O</b><b>LD QUEEN TURNED YOUNG</b></span>: In strategic casting, June Lockhart turns into her daughter, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA actress Anne Lockhart, playing mom’s younger self, who winds up a sword-battling vixen verses the nefarious Troll creatures after they turn the Complex into a sinister green forest…</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tgvVp8Jc35Y/VoQgLNaURjI/AAAAAAAAqMk/tKR_GFy_fOo/s1600/24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tgvVp8Jc35Y/VoQgLNaURjI/AAAAAAAAqMk/tKR_GFy_fOo/s200/24.jpg" width="173" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Young hot Queen</td></tr>
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And in TROLL 2 the old and/or gruesomely ugly Queen turns exceptionally hot when we experience Deborah Reed sans ghoulish makeup, looking downright sexy and seductive, especially when she dances up to one victim before a makeout session involving an RV full of popcorn, putting the kernelful climax of REAL GENIUS to shame.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dyMLBqNASPw/VoQgTYHm-5I/AAAAAAAAqMs/weX0LWLCvaY/s1600/25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dyMLBqNASPw/VoQgTYHm-5I/AAAAAAAAqMs/weX0LWLCvaY/s200/25.jpg" width="191" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Old contrived show</td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>A BIZARRE FAKE TELEVISION MOVIE PLAYING:</b></span> In each, there is a fake movie playing on the TV set that the characters are watching, for no apparent reason…</div>
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In TROLL it’s a sort of gimmicky old fashion retro kinda thing, unexplained and unimportant, and once again TROLL 2 goes one giant step beyond its more conventional predecessor…</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IV8r7l1jO-U/VoQga3m-jII/AAAAAAAAqM0/29tGbOGmCMM/s1600/26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IV8r7l1jO-U/VoQga3m-jII/AAAAAAAAqM0/29tGbOGmCMM/s200/26.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Newer Contrived Movie</td></tr>
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Showing a bizarre film where a gorilla, existing in a prehistoric setting, yanks off his own head… sits on the head which becomes a rocket… blasting him into the sky while cartoon music plays… Although it must be noted that this particular movie within a movie, along with other scenes viewed later on by the doomed teens, is somewhat of a cheat – for it was used in a few other films by the same TROLL 2 producer, including HITCHER IN THE DARK, borrowing not only the 2001 inspired gorilla but the same RV.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TQYpN-fBD3s/VoQghMWnxtI/AAAAAAAAqM8/5nhgmikCpjM/s1600/28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TQYpN-fBD3s/VoQghMWnxtI/AAAAAAAAqM8/5nhgmikCpjM/s200/28.jpg" width="131" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">T1 Green Death</td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>VICTIMS GO GREEN:</b></span> In both films the victims turn green, basically morphing from human form into vegetation…</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Mnwu19Lphs4/VoQgoKy13gI/AAAAAAAAqNE/9-YQIuDSCm4/s1600/29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Mnwu19Lphs4/VoQgoKy13gI/AAAAAAAAqNE/9-YQIuDSCm4/s200/29.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Ewing Mask</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In the original this changeling occurs in order for the real world to become the land of mystical creatures… It has to do with the progression of the story, and the transformation occurs by the power of the lead Troll... While in the second film, instigated only when the victims are successfully coaxed into eating green food, the shift occurs so the people can turn into pudding for the goblins to feed on… Basically, one alters the plot while the other alters the appetite of the antagonists.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y_nRxs4tnpk/VoQgygNW6UI/AAAAAAAAqNM/yurCl65F1rk/s1600/30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y_nRxs4tnpk/VoQgygNW6UI/AAAAAAAAqNM/yurCl65F1rk/s200/30.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julia Louis Dreyfus</td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>LOVELY SIRENS:</b></span> Right as the cheesy yet ominous synthesizer rolls out its eerie carpet of doom, TROLL 2 begins with a beautiful young girl leading (or rather, misleading) a young man into a world that’s not as storybook perfect as it may seem…</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0AXzqlrPO_Q/VoQg3SvycPI/AAAAAAAAqNU/Olcbqjt43sA/s1600/31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0AXzqlrPO_Q/VoQg3SvycPI/AAAAAAAAqNU/Olcbqjt43sA/s200/31.jpg" width="167" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nice Fake Freckles</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The actress, played by a cute Michele Abrams, is painted with fake freckles, giving her smitten lad a drink of green slime that will narrow his life into moments of sheer pain: all unseen… And in the original, a very familiar beauty, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, bookended between SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and SEINFELD, goes from a lovely yuppie into a lovelier forest nymph, looking like Eve in the Garden while coaxing her very own Adam into a kingdom of shadows…</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sN_hP90mfDA/VoQg-uVbJ-I/AAAAAAAAqNc/5LG0b4A7q0o/s1600/32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sN_hP90mfDA/VoQg-uVbJ-I/AAAAAAAAqNc/5LG0b4A7q0o/s200/32.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SNL alumni Brad Hall</td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>HANDSOME DOLTS FOLLOWING THEIR LOVELY VIXENS:</b></span> And that guy following Dreyfus is Brad Hall, Julia’s real life husband and former SNL co-star…</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S1KHucKapGo/VoQhEyKXbzI/AAAAAAAAqNk/52CR4Bamci4/s1600/33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S1KHucKapGo/VoQhEyKXbzI/AAAAAAAAqNk/52CR4Bamci4/s200/33.jpg" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Starts T2</td></tr>
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He ventures into this strange new world and it doesn’t mean as much as poor Peter from TROLL 2... And unlike Hall's misled tempted guy, Peter doesn't really exist but is a character in a story told by Joshua's deceased yet rather helpful wraith, Grandpa Seth, who winds up his young apprentice's personal Obi Wan Kenobi, using his own force to kick Goblin ass.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ulc3ckkw65I/VoQhMF8_rUI/AAAAAAAAqNs/K99nbH6MI78/s1600/34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ulc3ckkw65I/VoQhMF8_rUI/AAAAAAAAqNs/K99nbH6MI78/s200/34.jpg" width="166" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Right Wing nut Gary Sandy</td></tr>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>OVERALL BODY COUNT TEMPLATE:</b></span> And last but not least the body count horror flick aspect of both TROLL directed by Charles Band and TROLL 2 directed by Drake Floyd aka Claudio Fragasso and written by his wife, Rossella Drudi…</div>
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<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="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RdMfiQnyqaQ/VoQhQnljpSI/AAAAAAAAqN0/PKfgCdIZSsY/s1600/35.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RdMfiQnyqaQ/VoQhQnljpSI/AAAAAAAAqN0/PKfgCdIZSsY/s200/35.png" width="159" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Darren Dwing</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In the original, swinger Sonny Bono, gun nut Gary Sandy (shown to the left) and a few others are turned into green vegetation adding to Torok’s promised land...<br />
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While in TROLL 2 the group of horny teenagers are served up as intentional victims, like your typical slasher FRIDAY THE 13th or HALLOWEEN vehicle: The daughter’s boyfriend’s especially close-knit friends all meeting their own bizarre fate, and the best character of the doomed teens is the first one to venture out, all alone, into his very slow-moving fate... but at least he lasts a while... because Darren Ewing's Arnold steals the show...</div>

george hardy, horror, list, noah hathaway, sequel, stonehenge, troll 2

CONNECTING THE UNCONNECTED TROLL WITH TROLL 2

Connecting Troll 2 to the unconnected Troll WHERE TROLL AND TROLL 2 COLLIDE: The first venture is simple and entertaining enough... ...

LARGE EARTH DISRUPTION W/ SUE LYON IN 'END OF THE WORLD'

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8kWMuZFpGcQ/VoQWSLYtEVI/AAAAAAAAqI8/8aN5vHOwLpE/s1600/ee2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8kWMuZFpGcQ/VoQWSLYtEVI/AAAAAAAAqI8/8aN5vHOwLpE/s320/ee2.png" width="320"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Kathe Cunha as Nun in END OF THE WORLD Year: 1977</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There’s something utterly bizarre and eerily realistic about the films of producer Charles Band, each and every grainy frame resembling a last known photograph. And despite the title and possible turnout, <u>END OF THE WORLD</u> is a science-fiction exploitation not fitting into the disaster genre...</span><br>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Instead centered on an excruciatingly mellow investigative journey as the buried lead is, despite headlining Christopher Lee as a mysterious Father Pergado at a rural convent, obscure character-actor Kirk Scott as scientist Andrew Boran. Receiving computerized signals that could be bad (green words reading "Large Earth Disruption" on an old black computer screen), he ventures into the desert with his loyal and equally intrepid wife, Sylvia…</span><br>

charles band, christopher lee, cult, dean jagger, kirk scott, lew ayres, macdonald carey, science-fiction, sue lyon

LARGE EARTH DISRUPTION W/ SUE LYON IN 'END OF THE WORLD'

Kathe Cunha as Nun in END OF THE WORLD Year: 1977 There’s something utterly bizarre and eerily realistic about the films of producer Cha...

JENNIFER LAWRENCE IN JOY

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YcjyxYKfzDw/VoNy5eIvp1I/AAAAAAAAqIk/qHy7NpqQSPY/s1600/joy-jennifer-lawrence-trailer1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YcjyxYKfzDw/VoNy5eIvp1I/AAAAAAAAqIk/qHy7NpqQSPY/s1600/joy-jennifer-lawrence-trailer1.jpg"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2015 cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro, Bradley Cooper, Diane Ladd director: David O. Russell</td></tr>
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A character-driven film is usually when the character drives the plot, and the plot relies on the character to take us where she or he chooses to go, and with JOY by SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK director David O. Russell and his stock acting troupe-trio Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro and Bradley Cooper, the title character <i>is</i> the entire vehicle; so it's up to her and no one else to make the thing work...<br>
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That's not to say the direction isn't exemplary from the man who took us through an emotional rollercoaster ride in PLAYBOOK and partially succeeded in his lightweight Martin Scorsese style crime-caper AMERICAN HUSTLE, but it's well into the second act before his creative style becomes more than eye-candy in JOY, and that's when her back is fully pinned against the wall...<br>
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bradley cooper, david o. russell, diane ladd, jennifer lawrence, quirky, robert deniro

JENNIFER LAWRENCE IN JOY

year: 2015 cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro, Bradley Cooper, Diane Ladd director: David O. Russell A character-driven film is usua...

ROBERT BLAKE RULES 'THE PURPLE GANG' W/ JOSEPH TURKEL

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>year: 1959</u></td></tr>
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“The whole rhythm section was the Purple Gang,” sang Elvis Presley from his JAILHOUSE ROCK… And while roaring loose on the outside, THE PURPLE GANG keep a steady rhythm and wily pace, yet are ultimately a mere cog in a “law propaganda” wheel as an ultra serious cop, in this case Barry Sullivan’s Police Lt. William P. Harley, lets us know, right off the bat, just how bad these bad guys are and that crime doesn’t pay, and there aren’t any benefits, either.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robert Blake</u></td></tr>
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Despite the restrictions from the late 50’s era, channeling 30’s gangster flicks more than that present time’s more ambiguous Film Noir melodramas, Robert Blake as William Joseph “Honeyboy” Willard packs a genuine machine gun wallop – for a young climber he seems already on top of his game, with an expression like he’s seen just about everything, twice, but not without an equally frightened, vulnerable underbelly. Surprisingly, given his status as lead heavy in a genre that relies on going gloriously overboard, Blake’s acting style is reserved and laidback, waiting for his moments instead of pouncing upon them: a bit more Marlon Brando than James Cagney.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Purple Gang Score: **1/2</u></td></tr>
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Speaking of Noir, the always-hypnotic Joseph Turkel from Stanley Kubrick’s THE KILLING (and then PATH’S OF GLORY and THE SHINING) heads a more established yet less lethal and ambitious syndicate that Blake’s boys merge with, and who Sullivan narrowly tracks while doubting his existence as a cop in a town so gritty: If only it were more so – the movie, that is…<br />
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With such nefarious potential centering on cutthroat gangsters, PURPLE could have really soared instead of attempting to punch holes through a proverbial steel box that, like already mentioned, warns us from the onset how the titular boys aren’t worth rooting for, or against.<br />
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So when Bobby Blake isn’t firing bullets, it’s up to a handful of montage sequences, including actual archive footage, showing the GANG in destructive, gun-toting action to counter the preachy narration. But after a while, the thugs get lost in that “news reel” shuffle: A shame since this movie was supposed to belong to them.

barry sullivan, fifties, gangster, joseph turkel, robert blake

ROBERT BLAKE RULES 'THE PURPLE GANG' W/ JOSEPH TURKEL

year: 1959 “The whole rhythm section was the Purple Gang,” sang Elvis Presley from his JAILHOUSE ROCK… And while roaring loose on the ou...

ROBBI MORGAN INTERVIEW: BORDERING ON CAMP BLOOD

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robbi Morgan Friday the 13th Interview</td></tr>
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“It was a low-budget feature and I was grateful to have an acting job,” 
writes Robbi Morgan Walberg (then cast as Robbi Morgan) about her memorable part in the original 
FRIDAY THE 13TH. “No idea it would turn into what it has!”<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robbi on the run</td></tr>
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After almost ten sequels, a remake, another reboot in the works, and countless imitations, the first movie, directed by Sean S. Cunningham, still holds up as not only an important piece of horror cinema history, but a really entertaining film. And actress Robbi Morgan has something to do with that legacy: Following a prologue set in the 1950’s, Robbi’s character isn’t technically the first to die in the movie (and franchise), but she is the first victim in the present time – igniting a massacre that would include Kevin Bacon and a handful of other unlucky young men and women working at Camp Crystal Lake, a rural location with a sinister past, known as Camp Blood and, released in 1980, Robbi’s free-spirited hitchhiker, Annie, seems like a throwback to the early 1970’s: a spontaneous, assertive, independent, natural beauty found in looser projects like THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE or THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT...<br>

eighties, exploitation, franchise, horror, interview

ROBBI MORGAN INTERVIEW: BORDERING ON CAMP BLOOD

Robbi Morgan Friday the 13th Interview “It was a low-budget feature and I was grateful to have an acting job,” writes Robbi M...

WEAVING THROUGH BOTH IN COLD BLOOD & CAPOTE

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Philip Seymour Hoffman as controversial author Truman Capote Year: 2004</u></td></tr>
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Truman Capote, after writing what was considered to be the best book of its genre... a genre that he himself created with IN COLD BLOOD... basically retired and became famous for being famous, partying through two partying-decades until his slowdown and eventual death, caused by alcoholism, in 1984. And that genre is what can be considered a "true crime novel" that, based on a real life event, seems fictional in how the story flows in an otherwise page-turning, thriller fashion.<br>

2005, biopic, catherine keener, chris cooper, jazz score, philip seymour hoffman, true crime, truman capote

WEAVING THROUGH BOTH <b>IN COLD BLOOD</b> & <b>CAPOTE</b>

WEAVING THROUGH BOTH IN COLD BLOOD & CAPOTE

Philip Seymour Hoffman as controversial author Truman Capote Year: 2004 Truman Capote, after writing what was considered to be the best ...

MICHAEL DOUGLAS & MATT DAMON GO 'BEHIND THE CANDELABRA'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Michael Douglas and Matt Damon in Behind The Candelabra 2013</u></td></tr>
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At one point, Michael Douglas, after enough time channelling the ultra-effeminate, Las Vegas piano playing virtuoso, Liberace, gets a surge of Alpha Male via Gordon Gekko from WALL STREET when Matt Damon, as the glittery star's boyfriend for around five years, Scott Thorson, defends himself in a Charlie Sheen/Bud Fox put-upon whine when their relationship is compared to a classic sit-com...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Caught in Lib's Web</u></td></tr>
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"Why am I the 'Lucy'?" Scott complains. "Because," says Douglas's Liberace with blunt finality, "I've got the Nightclub Act!" And Michael doesn't hold back much of anything in Steven Soderbergh's HBO original BEHIND THE CANDELABRA, centering on Liberace just as he's nearing has-been status: but only outside the perpetual gleam of Las Vegas, where he reigns with enough glitter and gold to put Fort Knox blush... <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dan Aykroyd's Seymour Heller's ongoing damage control</u></td></tr>
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With a stubborn and blunt Jewish agent Seymour Heller (Dan Aykroyd resembling Andy Kaufman's bogus lounge singer Tony Clifton) making him the hardest-working act in Sin City, we're able to experience not only what's BEHIND all the sparkle, but random performances on stage to make our centerpiece seem talented enough to base a movie on... which of course he was, but as an actor persuading a movie or TV audience, imitating a musician (one of the best in the world) isn't always easy, or realistic... And according to both Thorson and Liberace's buddy (Scott Bakula playing a sort of White Rabbit character that doesn't mean much beyond introducing the couple), Mr. Entertainment's audience supposedly had no idea he was a homosexual, and, well, let's be honest here: most people <i>must have</i> known, deep down, but just didn't dwell on it: enjoying his immense talent in a sort of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Care" before "coming out" meant (and still means) more than having the talent to make it matter in the first place: gay first, celebrity second seems to be the new politically-correct standard, but at one time, from Montgomery Clift to Anthony Perkins to Paul Lynde, talent meant everything.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Soakin' in Libbie's Lair</u></td></tr>
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Beyond his big secret, Liberace's life was a non-stop work ethic that, according to him, didn't derive from his mother, played by an accented Debbie Reynolds in a tour de force fashion... and taking this reviewer a few seconds to realize it's her... or his long dead, deadbeat musician father... But his source was from God Himself... A proud Catholic! <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Debbie Reynolds vanishes in the role as Lee's mother</u></td></tr>
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And perhaps even a Republican as, in one extremely ironic scene, as the outspoken liberal Damon is seen in the foreground, we see and hear Liberace complaining about how Jane Fonda and Ed Asner put politics above being entertainers... And there's a fine line with what Liberace was hiding from the press to what he was open about in the presence of hired help within the multi-million dollar mansion, and was no stranger to secret spots around Vegas where gay sex wasn't being practiced in the safest manner. Yet most of the film occurs during the pre-AIDS era, following the loose disco decade and rolling into the "Conservative 1980's" (which, with the number of raunchy sex comedies, and tons of movies and music videos against President Reagan, it really wasn't... at least not the media) wherein a licorice curving font, beginning in 1977, displays sporadic years, and 1985 flashes on the screen right after a magazine ad about a dying Rock Hudson is shown...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Damon's glam rockstar look</u></td></tr>
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At this point, after the media-blitzed breakup, it's pretty much a downhill Disease of the Week that does, in fact, resemble a TV movie... despite cable being the new cinema nowadays... Thus the most risque scenes occur right before their love story becomes truly bizarre and morbid... Liberace passively ordering Thorson to go under the knife to surgically resemble his, Liberace's, younger self, which is the epitome of fact being stranger than fiction. Although, Damon still looks pretty much the same: like Matt Damon. But some of the best use of computerized-cleansing occurs in the beginning, as the still semi lucrative box-office actorl is made to look even younger than when his fame ignited in GOOD WILL HUNTING...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>The bad doctor</u></td></tr>
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Eventually, Scott turns into a boy-toy primadonna, and it's fun seeing Liberace's futzy partners and/or young stud "assistants" being literally shoved out the door (with a check handed to them by Heller)... And so, when Scott eventually realizes he could be next on the list, that aforementioned Disease melodrama becomes (beforehand) a sort of mundane Anti-Drug programmer... yet more realistic and intense than most. In one scene, Thorson and Nicky Katt's coke/speed dealing Mr. Y are sitting around, moaning to themselves while rocking back and forth: which is actually what intense "tweeking" really looks like...<br />
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Although originally, Thorson didn't need a secret source when scene-stealing Rob Lowe, playing plastic surgeon Dr. Jack Startz (resembling a cross between Michael Jackson and something out of THE DARK CRYSTAL... which is what Jackson resembled as well), follows Liberace's orders to not only alter the aging kid's mug, but to make him skinny again with an endless prescription of speed pills leading to Thorson's eventual drug-riddled downfall, which is probably why he wrote the book that inspired this movie in the first place: he didn't get much of a payoff since, during the 1980's, exposing a beloved cash cow (especially in Vegas) wasn't the wisest choice. Plus he had to admit that Liberace wasn't only his lover, but an adopted father. Strange days indeed!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Scott gets a Rolls Royce for Christmas BTC RATES: ****</u></td></tr>
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Thorson's denial of his own sexuality is as intriguing as Liberace's stubborn drive to remain not only straight in the eyes of his die-hard old-time fans, but to keep any rumor out of the papers, ultimately Thorson's ace in the hole that, like everything else in his life, folds completely...<br />
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And with a BOOGIE NIGHTS vibe propelling two straight actors not exactly taking a risk in a politically-correct era, but truly stretching beyond their usual mainstream characteristics, providing more than a glimpse into where motion pictures won't go, prompting the OCEANS ELEVEN director, upon several studio rejections to make this passion project theatrical, to give up big screen cinema while sustaining within the risque cable medium: where it actually fits much better, and looser...<br />
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The only really noticeable, distracting downside is that, at times, this BEHIND <i>feels</i> a bit too much like Thorson's own one-sided propaganda piece. For example, on their first "date" as he's looking bashful and shocked, reluctant, vulnerable and apprehensive sitting in Liberace's jacuzzi... did he really not know what would happen next? For the most part, Thorson's portrayed as an oblivious babe-in-the-woods under the predatory eyes of the famous pianist, who becomes somewhat infamous here, at times bordering on DADDY DEAREST... and he's interesting too. Or is that Douglas's doing? Sometimes it's tough to tell good from bad, right from wrong, real from fake, what or who's going or has already gone too far. And yet, CANDELABRA is a ultra-entertaining biopic either way. Let's the viewer be the judge, but not without the jury being swayed.

2013, cable, matt damon, michael douglas, scott bakula