cult film freak: September 2017

Written by James M. Tate / 9/30/2017 / No comments / anne archer , beach , drama , exploitation , kathleen quinlan , parker stevenson , romance , sam elliott , seventies , sharon clark , stephen young

LIFE'S A 70'S BEACH WITH SAM ELLIOTT AS A CAREER 'LIFEGUARD'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Sam Elliott and seagull both reposeful in LIFEGUARD Year: 1976</u></td></tr>
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A film as laidback as the title and occupation, but for lifeguard Sam Elliott, who seems a part of the beach he protects, there's plenty to do other than "bedding down babes" and looking good shirtless.<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>70's Babe Watch</u></td></tr>
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At thirty-three years old, with pressure from friends, family, lovers, and even strangers, he's forced to deal with the realization he's not a kid anymore, and too old for his occupation. All this leading to his fifteen-year high school reunion where he gets back in touch with ex-sweetheart and now single mom Anne Archer, who breezily runs a successful art gallery, and old buddy Stephen Young, co-owner of a lucritive Porsche dealership.<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u> Quinlan and Elliott in Lifeguard RATES: ****</u></td></tr>
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Might Sam be more suited as a husband, stepfather and car salesman than a tan-toned lady-killer lifeguard? This is a rare gem mixing comedy, drama, romance, but most of all it's a character-study: each element blending perfectly, mostly thanks to our mustached, deep-voiced star, one of the coolest cats in cinema... <br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Sharon Clark in LIFEGUARD</u></td></tr>
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Meanwhile, the romance between Sam Elliott and Anne Archer is kindhearted and genuine, but the best scenes have Sam the maverick...<br>
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Not only making it with the ladies but relaxing all alone, watching the beach before anyone else arrives while a frisky teenage girl, played by Kathleen Quinlan and who adorns all the poster artwork, is practically stalker. That he doesn't fight off, noticed by Parker Stevenson, who makes great sidekick and student (along with the audience) in the job harder than it seems: So BAYWATCH (that featured Stevenson) brought lifeguards to a comic book status, LIFEGUARD (penned by future INTO THE NIGHT and FIRSTBORN scribe Ron Kolso) provides a story where the occupation and the man are one in the same.<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Kathleen Quinlan in LIFEGUARD</u></td></tr>
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anne archer, beach, drama, exploitation, kathleen quinlan, parker stevenson, romance, sam elliott, seventies, sharon clark, stephen young

LIFE'S A 70'S BEACH WITH SAM ELLIOTT AS A CAREER 'LIFEGUARD'

Sam Elliott and seagull both reposeful in LIFEGUARD Year: 1976 A film as laidback as the title and occupation, but for lifeguard Sam Ell...

BLASTING OFF THE GLOSSY TEEN ORBIT OF SPACECAMP

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Phoenix, Preston, and the rest... here at SpaceCamp YEAR: 1986</u></td></tr>
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In the midst of the bright neon 1980's, two of the most popular theatrical elements combined into the teenage/science-fiction hybrid of SPACE CAMP, which was an obvious inspiration for Clint Eastwood's SPACE COWBOYS years later — only in this one, our crew gets shot into the stars on accident...<br>
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That's the somewhat limp third act as the students, nervously led by trainer Kate Capshaw, are forced to become real astronauts in a contrived crash course: So it's on the ground, at the title location, where the movie shines brightest with a bubbly babe played by Kelly Preston, the proverbial Ginger to a much more serious, hidden-beauty tomboy in Lea Thompson's Mary Ann; the geeky yet smooth token black guy dude, Larry B. Scott; and Leaf (later Joaquin) Phoenix is a brainy kid with a robot, bullied one minute and the next defended by cool cat Tate Donovan, who, cruising his jeep through the opening credits to Eric Clapton's Forever Man, is the true lead (along with Lea) despite Capshaw's top billing: The grownups provide experience and exposition while the kids put a touch of BREAKFAST CLUB into SPACE CAMP.</div>

adventure, eighties, joaquin phoenix, kelly preston, larry b. scott, lea thompson, tate donovan, teen, tom skerritt

BLASTING OFF THE GLOSSY TEEN ORBIT OF SPACECAMP

Phoenix, Preston, and the rest... here at SpaceCamp YEAR: 1986 In the midst of the bright neon 1980's, two of the most popular theat...

ROBYN HILTON BOWS OUT OF CINEMA AFTER 'MALIBU EXPRESS'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Hilton serves Hinton in Andy Sidaris's MALIBU EXPRESS Year: 1985</u></td></tr>
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By the mid-Eighties, the sex-exploitation genre had moved from drive-ins to video. This includes the last movie of Cult Film Freak's most popular actress...<br>
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Two previous reviews featuring Mel Brooks's gun-chewing BLAZING SADDLES Governor's bimbo-redhead... as a guest on STARSKY & HUTCH and the campy Ron Ely picture DOC SAVAGE... has gone through the proverbial roof and today, as our usual 700 daily hits went to 4,000 (for unknown reasons), we'll say goodbye to Robyn Hilton... in a cinematic sense: this was her last picture, a Noir detective spoof with tons of Playboy Playmates, vanilla mustached leading man Darby Hinton, and the kind of light hump wannabe-porn that didn't quite need a curtain in the video rental store, and MALIBU EXPRESS, even for a bad movie, is downright awful, lacking the homage-driven tongue-in-cheek humor, interesting locations, and sporadic gunplay usually given to Bogart-like throwbacks: comedy or otherwise. Besides Hilton's five scenes as the mischievous maid, Marion... Maid Marion... Sybil Danning, in her usual comfortable b-movie groove, provides the only decent performance despite the fact there's no rhyme or rhythm here at all. C'mon, bad cult films are supposed to be fun. But this EXPRESS was made about ten years too late — not the sound of a genuine party, but someone playing their music too loud.<br>

comedy, darby hinton, eighties, exploitation, neo noir, robyn hilton

ROBYN HILTON BOWS OUT OF CINEMA AFTER 'MALIBU EXPRESS'

Hilton serves Hinton in Andy Sidaris's MALIBU EXPRESS Year: 1985 By the mid-Eighties, the sex-exploitation genre had moved from driv...

TWO PETER O'TOOLE CAMEOS BEFORE LAWRENCE OF ARABIA

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>THE SAVAGE INNOCENTS Score: *1/2</u></td></tr>
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<u>THE SAVAGE INNOCENTS,</u> directed by veteran auteur Nicholas Ray, who would, a decade later, dry up his Hollywood resources and, for a little while, live in the home of his former REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE actor Dennis Hopper after the success of EASY RIDER...<br>
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So perhaps it's not altogether shocking the man who once contributed to classic cinema was no longer relevant — this motion picture, centering on an Eskimo played by Anthony Quinn, is one of the worst piles of husky dung ever created: seeming as if Jack London wrote a novel on soiled toilet paper, we suffer through an hour of Quinn's lone nomad (in the snow he's a snowmad) hunting cute seals and, after so-much brooding, landing a wife... <br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Before they set out across the Arabian desert, O'Toole</u></td></tr>
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Though mostly shot in an igloo (a cheap set made up to look like the white-block interior), there's one sequence where Quinn gets drunk at a bar and dances to that era's boogie-woogie.<br>
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And we've buried the lead because the third act could have been something special since, once our man is falsely accused of cold-blooded murder, two (eventually one) guards take him across the icy landscape to turn him over to the authorities, and it's Peter O'Toole that survives. Scenes where both near-future LAWRENCE OF ARABIA stars (who'd become living legends three-years later) debate race and ethics has real potential — only thing is, O'Toole's voice is dubbed by an American actor who sounds like an easy listening disc jockey. So be incredibly warned — this is <i>not</i> a Peter O'Toole feature for fans for the same reason he insisted his name not appear on the opening credits: despite ultimately providing the secondary leading role. Shame!<br>

adaptation, adventure, aldo ray, anthony quinn, caper, disney, heist, john guillermin, kieron moore, peter o'toole, sixties, warner archives

TWO PETER O'TOOLE CAMEOS BEFORE LAWRENCE OF ARABIA

THE SAVAGE INNOCENTS Score: *1/2 THE SAVAGE INNOCENTS, directed by veteran auteur Nicholas Ray, who would, a decade later, dry up his H...

VIEWING TWO CUTS OF 'CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND'

bob balaban, carl weathers, melinda dillon, richard dreyfuss, science-fiction, seventies, steven spielberg, teri garr

VIEWING TWO CUTS OF 'CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND'

Gobi Desert Sand Ship separates the Theatrical and Director's Cut At this point, it seems any movie anticipating extra terrestrials ...

VISITOR REVIEW HAS FOUND A NEW LOCATION

glenn ford, horror, indie, john huston, lance henriksen, ovidio g. assonitis, paige conner, science-fiction, seventies, shelley winters

VISITOR REVIEW HAS FOUND A NEW LOCATION

THE VISITOR HAS MOVED TO HERE

THURSDAY NIGHT REVIEW OF THE BIG SCREEN 'IT'

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Both the 1990's IT miniseries and the abundance of recent reboot trailers must have left an impression: the now famously established red balloon of Pennywise the Clown flies over the dark blue New Line Cinema logo before even the opening credits are shown...<br>
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Either way, here's a film that, within the first minute, sets up the main teenage boy character during the 1980's. On his bedroom wall is a poster of GREMLINS, and when all his buddies are together they do seem extremely Spielbergian. Meanwhile, this is a Stephen King adaptation, and the last project combining Steven and Stephen was STRANGER THINGS so, who knows, maybe cable binge-viewers will think that show inspired all this — but even they should realize that IT is a lot tighter and has way more rhyme, rhythm and purpose.<br>

2017, adaptation, horror, reboot, stephen king

THURSDAY NIGHT REVIEW OF THE BIG SCREEN 'IT'

Both the 1990's IT miniseries and the abundance of recent reboot trailers must have left an impression: the now famously established r...

STEVE COCHRAN GANGSTER NOIR REVIEW OF 'HIGHWAY 301'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Steve Cochran walks in smoking in HIGHWAY 301</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Steve Cochran will be no stranger in the months to come. From playing heavies in popular Film Noir flicks like THE DAMNED DON'T CRY to heroes in b-pictures like our popular "thiral" review of <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2017/05/qR.html">QUANTRILL'S RAIDERS</a>, and plenty of others spanning two and a half decades...</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let's begin with a quick summary of one of his more blunt, by-the-numbers Noir movies that features, within his shadowy gang of hat-donning hoods, the actor who'd play Joan Crawford's straitlaced husband in the aforementioned DAMNED, Richard Egan, his character introduced by name through a stern, steady narration following eerie, monotone real life politicians, seated behind their desks, lecturing the audience how <i>Crime Doesn't Pay</i>... </span><br>

fifties, film noir or melodrama, richard egan, steve cochran, warner archives