cult film freak: February 2017

Written by James M. Tate / 2/26/2017 / No comments / action , creature , fifties , laurette luez , roddy mcdowall , shark , thriller , victor mature , war

RODDY MCDOWALL WITH LAURETTE LUEZ IN 'KILLER SHARK'

action, creature, fifties, laurette luez, roddy mcdowall, shark, thriller, victor mature, war

RODDY MCDOWALL WITH LAURETTE LUEZ IN 'KILLER SHARK'

KILLER SHARK Year: 1950 Following the bizarre Neo Noir SHARKS' TREASURE and continuing our monthlong review of underrated or rela...

TRIBUTE TO ADDICTIVELY AWESOME ACTOR BILL PAXTON

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>The Bill Paxton Crazy Mama cameo... Post Originally from 2-26-2017</u></td></tr>
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Not many actors equal Jack Nicholson, who, in a technical sense, the recently departed Bill Paxton (who died from complications of surgery on February 26th), replaced in the maligned yet entertaining TERMS OF ENDEARMENT sequel, THE EVENING STAR. And Peter O'Toole said in an interview about THE STUNT MAN, also referring to his string of other accomplishments,  "Great movies make Great Actors." Jack, Peter and many others have been in far greater movies than the late Bill Paxton, whose performances would often exceed the movie itself. He shares Jack's mischievous cat-that-ate-the-canary grin, and seems to have the kind of steady confidence that, if he were a real life friend, you'd feel both amused and completely safe with. But Paxton had a likability factor that trumped many actors. His on-screen style bordered on comedy and drama while his spontaneity made him one of the most unique actors from the 1980's. But our name-dropped buddy, actress Sally Kirkland, said she had coached Bill when he first got into show business. She couldn't remember the picture, and as movie fanatics aka cult film freaks often know more than the genuine article, it was, most likely, a low-budget Roger Corman 1950's-era/1975-shot bank robbing action flick titled CRAZY MAMA, a hybrid of BONNIE AND CLYDE and Corman's BIG BAD MAMA. CRAZY is one of Paxton's first moments on screen. Later, after his fame was well established, features like TWISTER where he starred, or smaller roles like the scene-stealing or rather movie-making turn as bullying older brother Chet in John Hughes's WEIRD SCIENCE, he always left an impression. And while the big time stardom waned a bit after playing a sort of Jacques Cousteau/Geraldo Rivera hybrid in his TERMINATOR, ALIENS and TRUE LIES director James Cameron's epic blockbuster TITANIC (and Cameron's then-girlfriend's rural Vampire yarn NEAR DARK), his last big starring push was on cable television, and that's where, nowadays, the good stuff is. And it takes a great actor to succeed in both venues. And he was that. Great and completely original.

bill paxton, eighties, nineties, seventies, tribute

TRIBUTE TO ADDICTIVELY AWESOME ACTOR <b>BILL PAXTON</b><br />

TRIBUTE TO ADDICTIVELY AWESOME ACTOR BILL PAXTON

The Bill Paxton Crazy Mama cameo... Post Originally from 2-26-2017 Not many actors equal Jack Nicholson, who, in a technical sense, the ...

Written by James M. Tate / 2/10/2017 / No comments / camp , franchise , horror , lori loughlin , meg ryan , richard fleischer , robert joy , sequel , tony roberts

WHEN SCARY MET SALLY: MEG RYAN BEGINS IN 'AMITYVILLE 3D'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>A glimpse into the brilliant three dimensions in Amityville 3D Year: 1983</u></td></tr>
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It was the best of times; it was the worst of 3D Cinema; or at the very least, the most contrived in its production, perfectibility, and logic...<br />
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Case in point, the first Third Film in The Third Dimension worth noting was JAWS 3D, a campy masterpiece of banality wherein the grownup kids of Roy Scheider's Chief Brody work at a Sea World type locale where a shark gets in past an underwater gate, and without a ticket. Then there's the third FRIDAY THE 13TH where the Effect is actually pretty good, that is, better than JAWS 3D since bloody machetes — as opposed to random sporadic decorations — pop out at the audience (this is Cult Film Freak's favorite F13TH film). And the most bizarre example is directed by our all-time favorite director, Richard Fleischer: Not only is AMITYVILLE 3D no FANTASTIC VOYAGE or SOYLENT GREEN, it's not even RED SONYA...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Regular Score: **1/2 Camp Value: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
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Although, surprisingly enough, it <i>is</i> entertaining at times, especially the opening sequence where grieving marrieds Tony Roberts and Candy Clark seek the voice of their deceased son through a clairvoyant couple renting the titular house and — the twist is that they're not married but workmates for a magazine disproving not only ghosts but the shams who con vulnerable families...<br />
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This is followed by an overweight, neurotic real estate agent (familiar looking/always working character-actor John Harkins), interesting for more reasons than being an obvious first victim. He sells the house to Roberts, who wants to write his Great American Novel, and, being in the business of disbelief, he can care less about the house's ghoulish reputation. Meanwhile, Candy Clark's intrepid yet equally superstitious photographer, Melanie — far more important than a very whiny Tess Harper as Tony's separated wife — fills the "investigator" shoes, veering outside the box, an idea that works and doesn't: While we <i>do</i> stray from the usual claustrophobic haunted house template, if elevators and cars are equally cursed, why does the legendary manor mean anything?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Lori Loughlin maybe isn't what she seems</u></td></tr>
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Like AMITYVILLE 2: THE POSSESSION, which is arguably superior than the famous Rod Steiger "Get Ouuuut!" original, involves a young, innocent and downright gorgeous daughter, Diane Franklin, born to be in peril. Herein, another lovely and vulnerable daddy's girl, played by future sitcom starlet Lori Loughlin, is the only character that the parents and the audience seem meant to <i>really</i> care about...<br />
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Scenes with playful friend Meg Ryan, along with two vapid teenage boys, actually work because finally, we're <i>inside</i>. There's an underlying element of suspense, but the 3D aspect is overused to a hilarious level. Practically every object, from a boom mic to a bright red frisbee, makes its utterly contrived way towards the camera so many times there's not enough room for the horror to stretch beyond dated special effects and especially those banal flies buzzing up a ludicrous storm! But, like flies on crap, there's a bigger, campier and more ridiculous beast downstairs, which is supposed to be the end-all, tie-in culprit of all the films, lurking inside a well in the basement that harbors the Gate of Hell...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>When Scary Met Sally: Meg Ryan & Lori Loughlin in Amityville 3D</u></td></tr>
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Like any horror flick that runs out of creative gas by the second or third act, it's up to an actual creature/monstrosity to push the vehicle into fifth gear — but this remains mostly in neutral. When ATLANTIC CITY actor Robert Joy, as a good ghost hunter (what Beatrice Straight was in POLTERGEIST), wrestles with the animated wraith, the camp value rises tremendously. <br />
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And for fans of classic movies, it's nearly impossible to believe that the director, around seventy-years old and having worked nonstop since the 1940's, would stoop so low. But without his guidance, who knows — it might have been so bad there'd be nothing to discuss at all. The fact is, A3D is a painfully worthwhile guilty pleasure that, at times, actually flows.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>When Satan Met Sally: Meg Ryan goes Ouiji Boarding with Lori Loughlin in AMITYVILLE 3D</u></td></tr>
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camp, franchise, horror, lori loughlin, meg ryan, richard fleischer, robert joy, sequel, tony roberts

WHEN SCARY MET SALLY: MEG RYAN BEGINS IN 'AMITYVILLE 3D'

A glimpse into the brilliant three dimensions in Amityville 3D Year: 1983 It was the best of times; it was the worst of 3D Cinema; or at...

Written by James M. Tate / 2/08/2017 / No comments / battlestar galactica , dirk benedict , richard hatch , science-fiction , seventies , tribute

RICHARD HATCH AS APOLLO: HERO FOR THE ZERO GENERATION

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Richard Hatch headlining on the opening credits</u></td></tr>
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Alas to the forgotten, neglected and rejected Generation-X, who isn't lucky enough to be blessedly born into more realistic motion pictures and serialized cable TV shows, catered especially to the all-knowing Millennials... The Xers who are also completely lost beneath the shadow of the prior celebrated Boomer generation, who reared and then named them after basically, nothing...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Richard Hatch, Lorne Green and Terry Carter</td></tr>
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After all, X means nothing, nada, zilch, zero, and hell, who knows, maybe that's what we are... And yet, for ourselves, we hold dear to the things we grew up on, no matter how simplistic and corny: Our memories are everything to us, and we still live in the past — the clouds we turned into dragons are still being battled upon by the knights of our childhood reveries...<br>
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And if what you just read seemed intentionally loaded with over-the-top sarcasm and forced pathos, you're right... After all, most of the wonderful looking new films and shows were created, directed by and star members of the pop-culture-loving Lost X Gen... So now, with all that jazz behind us, Cult Film Freak presents a memorial to one of the heroic and dashing figures of the past: the star of a series that for some gets sillier with age but to others, is still incredible: that being Glen A. Larson's pulpy science-fantasy opus, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poor Apollo, always getting blocked by Starbuck</td></tr>
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A one-season wonder that seemed to have been created merely to quench the STAR WARS fans, dying of thirst a year after the groundbreaking blockbuster that hit theaters with an immense shockwave of epic reverberation... At that point, with a sequel nowhere in sight, a void needed filling...<br>
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With a few members of George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic team, the best thing about BATTLESTAR was the special effects, wonderfully embracing the same kind of grainy "used future" look with dog-fighting spaceships seeming as if they'd been around forever, battling a menacing, destructive foe called Cylons, whose own super-cool vessels are flat, sleek and formidable, looking downright fantastic despite one friend pointing out, as a group of us were watching a retitled VHS copy of THE LIVING LEGEND with Lloyd Bridges as an interstellar General Patton type: "They look like those... Jewish hats." And while this blunt cool-cat always knew <i>just how </i>to rain on the kitschy parade, we all cracked up: for our favorite spaceship would thereafter be referred to as Flying Yarmulkes.<br>

battlestar galactica, dirk benedict, richard hatch, science-fiction, seventies, tribute

RICHARD HATCH AS APOLLO: HERO FOR THE ZERO GENERATION

Richard Hatch headlining on the opening credits Alas to the forgotten, neglected and rejected Generation-X, who isn't lucky enough t...

ROBERT SHAW & HARRISON FORD IN 'FORCE 10 FROM NAVARONE'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>FORCE 10 actors Nero, Ford, Shaw, Fox and Weathers YEAR: 1978</u></td></tr>
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Begins as a straight-out action/adventure and gathering espionage/thriller elements along the way,  FORCE 10 FROM NAVARONE is a fun, old school World War II programmer but hardly a genuine sequel to THE GUNS OF NAVARONE...<br>
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That movie, deemed a classic by critics and audiences alike, has two (three, actually) main characters played by leading men style actors as Gregory Peck and David Niven (and a Anthony Quinn) are replaced by character-actors Robert Shaw, riding high on his 1975 ignited JAWS fame, and Edward Fox, joining FORCE 10 led by an initially grouchy, and STAR WARS favorite, Harrison Ford, filling in Anthony Quinn's vacant position as third banana despite being on-par with Shaw: this ragtag team is sent from England to Italy and then into Yugoslavia...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Harrison Ford in Force Ten From Navarone</u></td></tr>
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Ford's mission is, at first, classified to Shaw, who joins to kill a German secret agent played by Franco Nero. The main goal is something that occurs in many war films: blowing up a strategic bridge used by the Germans while the b-story wields a more subtle underline for the tables to turn at any given moment.<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Paperback Cover</u></td></tr>
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During the best scenes when the picture really starts to flow, both lead characters band together after their troop are taken hostage: Having despised each other at first, it takes a realistic amount of time to warm up. Ford thaws into a likable American, delivering urgent lines like his STAR WARS rogue did under pressure, and yet, Shaw's underdog gentleman Brit still takes the lead by his experienced, resilient wits. Meanwhile, the viewer must suspend disbelief to truly enjoy the lightweight odyssey...<br>
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Before the bombastic climax, twists begin to settle within the cracks of the somewhat cliche yet spontaneous rollercoaster ride. When the missions of Force 10 and the Nararone vets intertwine, you never really know which peripheral character's on the right side, adding intrigue and a fair amount of suspense. And as a completely unrealistic albeit fun casting bonus, Carl Weathers adds an edgy blaxploitation element, eventually going up against his "rival" of sorts, a formidable Richard Kiel, whose voice was replaced in post production.<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rSLOXB6p0a8/XEr1smWa7wI/AAAAAAAA_Ec/OFv_sSKDU5wa0pYTMKPj7OzTeAKe7vLCQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-01-25%2Bat%2B3.39.14%2BAM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1391" data-original-width="1393" height="398" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rSLOXB6p0a8/XEr1smWa7wI/AAAAAAAA_Ec/OFv_sSKDU5wa0pYTMKPj7OzTeAKe7vLCQCLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-01-25%2Bat%2B3.39.14%2BAM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Personal Laserdisc Signed by the late Richard Kiel </u></td></tr>
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While it's much too easy for our heroes to traipse around Nazi-ridden Yugoslavia without getting killed...conversing as if taking a stroll down a public nature center.. there are enough snags in their way that you'll either forget or embrace the fact that, for <i>better </i>or worse, this is a fantasy war film...<br>
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A good thing when you have gun and knife fights, grand explosions and an ensemble dream cast banking in on actors from that period's smash hits: JAWS for Shaw, ROCKY for Weathers, and of course, Harrison Ford in STAR WARS and his trusted Reynolds is Angus McGuinness, who was Gold Leader in that same epic's Battle of the Death Star. And the biggest connection has to do with James Bond: One of the franchise's best directors, Guy Hamilton, captains two Bond villains and one Bond girl: Richard Kiel, who played the fan-adored henchman, Jaws, in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (and later, MOONRAKER); that same film's Barbara Bach; and Robert Shaw, the classic heavy from FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XuEaJLN30zE/XEryOKJAuWI/AAAAAAAA_Dg/esjog7HPQ_0vsZR1B_Zd3yWeC-YWUWcCQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-01-25%2Bat%2B3.19.00%2BAM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="714" data-original-width="1600" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XuEaJLN30zE/XEryOKJAuWI/AAAAAAAA_Dg/esjog7HPQ_0vsZR1B_Zd3yWeC-YWUWcCQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-01-25%2Bat%2B3.19.00%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, Barbara Bach and a few expendable Germans in Force 10 from NAVARONE</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, Barbara Bach in FORCE TEN FROM NAVARONE</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>The cool guy 1970's all-stars in FORCE TEN FROM NAVARONE</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wxZHy9aSUnk/XErsLnDS8lI/AAAAAAAA_C0/c_utBJjSFoEQL7V8V_Tni3awZ7jTrskyQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-01-24%2Bat%2B7.17.08%2BPM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="721" data-original-width="1600" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wxZHy9aSUnk/XErsLnDS8lI/AAAAAAAA_C0/c_utBJjSFoEQL7V8V_Tni3awZ7jTrskyQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-01-24%2Bat%2B7.17.08%2BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Blasting away in FORCE TEN FROM NAVARONE</u></td></tr>
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