cult film freak: October 2017

Written by James M. Tate / 10/31/2017 / No comments / amanda bearse , eighties , horror , roddy mcdowall

THE ORIGINAL 'FRIGHT NIGHT' FOR HALLOWEEN

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iHcZuFsT7Sw/WfrDIejdPBI/AAAAAAAAzZ8/MsuJXqMdjT0_YRJQ22gCBHL9VFifw54EACLcBGAs/s1600/fright%2Bnight%2Bamanda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="327" data-original-width="724" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iHcZuFsT7Sw/WfrDIejdPBI/AAAAAAAAzZ8/MsuJXqMdjT0_YRJQ22gCBHL9VFifw54EACLcBGAs/s1600/fright%2Bnight%2Bamanda.jpg"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year of Release: 1985</u></td></tr>
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Horror flicks haven't always balanced comedy and thrills, although since this particular combination goes with the territory, vehicles like the original FRIGHT NIGHT are considered classic now and were genuinely unique then: making this a genuinely unique classic.<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q_ZIl-Mh9G0/VhzNwwMQddI/AAAAAAAApcA/XLdNrh2Qljs/s1600/Screen%2Bshot%2B2015-10-13%2Bat%2B2.25.41%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q_ZIl-Mh9G0/VhzNwwMQddI/AAAAAAAApcA/XLdNrh2Qljs/s320/Screen%2Bshot%2B2015-10-13%2Bat%2B2.25.41%2BAM.png" width="247"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"><u>Original Poster Artwork</u></td></tr>
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William Ragsdale has an every-kid charm as a teenager named Charley, who worships a TV show centering on a fictional vampire slayer. And his dreams and/or nightmares are about to come true. For he new next door neighbor is a vampire, and the movie doesn't prolong suspense before our frenzied antagonist quickly discovers the truth through an open window.<br>
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From here on it's Charley trying to convince the local cop, his spunky girl and his best friend... scene-stealing, hyper-active "Evil Ed" hammed-up wonderfully by Stephen Geoffreys... that the handsome, womanizing, hypnotizing neighbor Jerry, played by Chris Sarandon, truly and literally... sucks.<br>
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The teen trio are great but without Roddy McDowall as Peter Vincent, the TV vamp slayer who's really a timid, washed-up actor, there wouldn't be the essential push needed to make things really work. A terrific transformation of Ed morphing from a bitten teen to a psychotic wolf is a highlight of this intentionally campy feast with a surprise around every corner. And not to forget Amanda Beasley (the neighbor from MARRIED WITH CHILDREN) as Charley's pretty ingenue; her scenes under Sarandon's swarthy spell adds a sensual creepiness to make it all even more worthy and complete.
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amanda bearse, eighties, horror, roddy mcdowall

THE ORIGINAL 'FRIGHT NIGHT' FOR HALLOWEEN

Year of Release: 1985 Horror flicks haven't always balanced comedy and thrills, although since this particular combination goes with...

MICHAEL FASSBENDER IS AN AGENT ON ICE IN THE SNOWMAN

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zOwpAO2PQZc/WfVugbK2_OI/AAAAAAAAzXE/H1p1eZhiCLYpOMZQgkitRSZsyK0YgTKDgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen-Shot-2017-03-30-at-09.09.32-750x350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="485" height="246" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zOwpAO2PQZc/WfVugbK2_OI/AAAAAAAAzXE/H1p1eZhiCLYpOMZQgkitRSZsyK0YgTKDgCLcBGAs/s400/Screen-Shot-2017-03-30-at-09.09.32-750x350.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year Released: 2017</u></td></tr>
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You know the tune, that Video killed the radio star... And Cable television is strangling Theatrical Releases, and if they keep turning out the likes of BLADE RUNNER 2049 and  SUBURBICON, we're all gonna save tons of money on soda and popcorn...<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Jf2HjvyINLg/WfVvDJd1jgI/AAAAAAAAzXM/iKiDd-i9MSo7PG86kss5PdrxukvywrqUgCLcBGAs/s1600/the-snowman-movie-2017-20007302.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="376" data-original-width="142" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Jf2HjvyINLg/WfVvDJd1jgI/AAAAAAAAzXM/iKiDd-i9MSo7PG86kss5PdrxukvywrqUgCLcBGAs/s400/the-snowman-movie-2017-20007302.jpg" width="150"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>SnowScore: 1/2</u></td></tr>
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This SNOWMAN is promoted as a sort of horror/thriller hybrid involving a serial killer that leaves his signature snowman doodle after each death, and there's a real/actual, eerie looking snowman too, and none have anything to do with the story at hand, which is almost completely absent through the long, ponderous two hours of an investigating Michael Fassbender standing around, breathing visible sighs in the freezing snow, or shivering indoors, either conversing with his pretty-plain partner about... a lot of first and last names and/or clues leading nowhere — that don't seem like clues at all...<br>
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The one character with potential is a wan and sickly looking Val Kilmer — speaking in what sounds like someone else's voice — as a sort of rogue, Bogart-like Noir detective of some kind, and he doesn't last long. We're left with a dull Fassbender waiting for the next boring and — to try making up for it — grotesquely violent murder scene in a picture literally as cold as and even more unenlightening and pointless than the Tom Hardy serial killer on ice, CHILD 44. And because of these kind of alternative avant-garde flicks being more of a letdown than a typical fly-by-night blockbuster, it's really the best choice to stay at home: Because nothing's worse than being stuck in an indie purgatory while avoiding big budget crapola, which feels like ditching school in a library. Thus THE SNOWMAN is truly one of the worst experiences had in a theater.  There's just no reason for this kind of torture!<br>

2017, crime, michael fassbender, mystery, new, thriller, val kilmer

MICHAEL FASSBENDER IS AN AGENT ON ICE IN THE SNOWMAN

Year Released: 2017 You know the tune, that Video killed the radio star... And Cable television is strangling Theatrical Releases, and i...

GEORGE CLOONEY DIRECTS MATT DAMON IN SUBURBICON

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TpGujHJn114/WfLdkuEEqiI/AAAAAAAAzWk/b9chAmmVX-sQXp-rdaKBrmPaw0nTSq81ACLcBGAs/s1600/Suburbicon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="551" height="250" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TpGujHJn114/WfLdkuEEqiI/AAAAAAAAzWk/b9chAmmVX-sQXp-rdaKBrmPaw0nTSq81ACLcBGAs/s400/Suburbicon.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>YEAR OF RELEASE: 2017</u></td></tr>
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It may have seemed logical before, but now there's genuine proof that a Coen Brothers movie has to be both written <i>and directed</i> by Joel and Ethan so that the dark comedy seems genuine, palpable, and not one bit contrived...<br>
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But their own personal Cary Grant in George Clooney, the star of a few less inspired installments after the bro's last true classic, THE BIG LEBOWSKI, has, as director and co-writer, made his very own "Coen Brothers" experience taking place in a 1950's Suburban community called, simply enough, SUBURBICON, a misleading paradise with postcard-perfect houses and manicured lawns belonging to one-dimensional neighbors, all of them white... Save for the black family that just moved in... a husband, wife and child suffering through chanting protests right outside their living room window, and for absolutely zero reason plot-wise except to further prove how hypnotically racist, soulless and Stepford-like Caucasians were back then (as if we hadn't learned by now, again and again and again)...<br>
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2017, coen brothers, crime, fifties-era, george clooney, julianne moore, matt damon, neo noir, new, oscar issac

GEORGE CLOONEY DIRECTS MATT DAMON IN SUBURBICON

YEAR OF RELEASE: 2017 It may have seemed logical before, but now there's genuine proof that a Coen Brothers movie has to be both wri...

JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME SERVES A PRISON 'DEATH WARRANT'

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j6RZ7PccAbs/WfBX7zFgoDI/AAAAAAAAzUo/p5TtyOLYIUYdOdTHB3hJDIyubtK3fKDNgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-10-25%2Bat%2B2.21.06%2BAM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="802" data-original-width="1212" height="263" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j6RZ7PccAbs/WfBX7zFgoDI/AAAAAAAAzUo/p5TtyOLYIUYdOdTHB3hJDIyubtK3fKDNgCLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-10-25%2Bat%2B2.21.06%2BAM.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>JCVD battles Al Leong in Death Warrant YEAR: 1990</u></td></tr>
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When a movie begins with the action hero saying, "He killed my partner," there's gonna be some bloodshed, followed by a one-liner; in this case, "You're under arrest," which is not that ironic or humorous except the guy Jean Claude Van Damme's speaking to is completely unconscious and almost dead...<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZEYBzwdOEGU/WfBYkHSh2WI/AAAAAAAAzUw/LyE2FQNYrH8eV0R7QeLL6jFlZjwB_u2DACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-10-24%2Bat%2B8.58.07%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="606" data-original-width="378" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZEYBzwdOEGU/WfBYkHSh2WI/AAAAAAAAzUw/LyE2FQNYrH8eV0R7QeLL6jFlZjwB_u2DACLcBGAs/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-10-24%2Bat%2B8.58.07%2BPM.jpg" width="199"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Lighten Up, Conrad Dunn</u></td></tr>
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This catapults into yet another <i>Cop Sent Into Prison Undercover</i> flick (investigating random inmate deaths) that's better than most, especially given the relatively low budget and tier-two actors including bully guard Art LeFleur, YOUNGBLOOD starlet Cynthia Gibb as the planted "wife" and especially the late  Robert Guillaume (Benson on SOAP and BENSON), who, like Morgan Freeman a few years later in THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, is a convicted killer that acquires goods and most important, information (to a white innocent inmate) that, in both cases, can help an "innocent" white guy...<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ysid4i-bQlc/WfBYxw_Xa4I/AAAAAAAAzU0/6_ej31NkduExZE3MBNoGXTQDqLkTNlP9ACLcBGAs/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="416" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ysid4i-bQlc/WfBYxw_Xa4I/AAAAAAAAzU0/6_ej31NkduExZE3MBNoGXTQDqLkTNlP9ACLcBGAs/s200/5.jpg" width="133"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>MovieScore: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
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Yet it's nothing too easy since Claude Van Damme's Louis Burke, during the best scenes, aided by quirky cellmate Conrad Dunn... who played Francis "Psycho" Sawyer in STRIPES and almost looks more like TAXI DRIVER Travis Bickle than Robert De Niro... must visit various cellblocks in the dark, dingy, fitfully claustrophobic prison to gather name-after-name and thankfully, a few neat fights occur along the way: One in particular, with another familiar face to the 80's tough guy realm, Al Leong, is a face-kicking standout.<br>
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Like all Action or Prison flicks, there's only so far the buildup can go before the sh-t hits the can: in this case when signature b-villain Patrick Kilpatrick returns from the prologue and, sadly, the intriguing prison flick becomes a desperate fight for survival as the proverbial rocks tumble down at top speed. A shame since the gathering moss was so damn entertaining.<br>

conrad bain, cynthia gibb, jean-claude van damme, nineties, prison, robert guillaume

JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME SERVES A PRISON 'DEATH WARRANT'

JCVD battles Al Leong in Death Warrant YEAR: 1990 When a movie begins with the action hero saying, "He killed my partner," the...

ALLY SHEEDY & MICHAEL ONTKEAN IN MAID TO ORDER

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-twxheWXCs3s/WesCnKuPRVI/AAAAAAAAzSo/-Re0W2zMQ-UoJJk8_ngZSvWrAuCiRWh7QCLcBGAs/s1600/22539798_385818335180682_5815207237230461563_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="651" data-original-width="960" height="271" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-twxheWXCs3s/WesCnKuPRVI/AAAAAAAAzSo/-Re0W2zMQ-UoJJk8_ngZSvWrAuCiRWh7QCLcBGAs/s400/22539798_385818335180682_5815207237230461563_n.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>YEAR: 1987</u></td></tr>
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This Cinderella tale from the glossy latter-mid 1980's is so obvious, the central spoiled rich girl actually looses a slipper... just in case you missed it... And riding high while on an unknowing descent from the Brat Pack make-em/break-em explosion two years earlier, Ally Sheedy's stuck in a light comedy that promises her character will get just-desserts for being such a brat (pun intended) when in reality, she's not so bad...<br>
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After one rushed nightclub scene followed by a failed attempt for a two-hundred dollar allowance to sustain the nightlife, dad wishes she was never born, igniting a fairy godmother in the form of quirky Beverly D'Angelo, and soon Sheedy's Jessie Montgomery is, like Dan Aykroyd in TRADING PLACES, on the streets. But since it takes no time at all to land a pretty decent job for a ludicrously unexplained reason at a wacky music promoter's mansion (Dick Shawn married to an equally kooky Valerie Perrine), the best sequence offered in MAID TO ORDER... when there's actually a struggle to catapult the film's entire purpose... occurs in the blink of an eye: after which this maid hardly gets ordered at all. But with the always-genuine Michael Ontkean on board, it's an engaging-enough rom-com, if you like that kinda thing: He and Ally have chemistry despite the fact that, along with the primadonna attitude never being fleshed out, her 90-minute life lesson is, like a spoiled-rotten rich kid's life, much too easy.<br>

ally sheedy, eighties, michael ontkean, romantic comedy

ALLY SHEEDY & MICHAEL ONTKEAN IN MAID TO ORDER

YEAR: 1987 This Cinderella tale from the glossy latter-mid 1980's is so obvious, the central spoiled rich girl actually looses a sli...

JACKIE CHAN & PIERCE BROSNAN IN THE FOREIGNER

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OPomv56bnSo/WeBt07imTII/AAAAAAAAzQ4/aunlo8Dm9cs0nFO6Rvies8-Dq41ByMv9QCLcBGAs/s1600/The-Foreigner-Thai-Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1071" data-original-width="1417" height="301" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OPomv56bnSo/WeBt07imTII/AAAAAAAAzQ4/aunlo8Dm9cs0nFO6Rvies8-Dq41ByMv9QCLcBGAs/s400/The-Foreigner-Thai-Poster.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u> A Reservoir Doggy Style Poster for Foreigner Year: 2017</u></td></tr>
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The Bruce Willis remake of the Charles Bronson cult classic DEATH WISH was pushed to next year, and it was originally intended to star and be directed by Sylvester Stallone — yet it's pretty much out now and is also, ironically, a lot like FIRST BLOOD...<br>
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Those are during the surprisingly few scenes centering on the film's lead, Jackie Chan, looking like a tired, somber, swollen Panda Bear, perfectly fitting the overall mood after his daughter's death from a possible IRA-backed terrorist attack on a London street. Nothing but a blank expression and mostly dead silence makes up for the kind of tireless melodrama usually needed to ignite a high-octane "They'll Get Theirs" action flick, but... here's a double-edged warning for RUMBLE IN THE BRONX (etc.) fans...
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2017, action, jackie chan, karate, new, pierce bronsan

JACKIE CHAN & PIERCE BROSNAN IN THE FOREIGNER

A Reservoir Doggy Style Poster for Foreigner Year: 2017 The Bruce Willis remake of the Charles Bronson cult classic DEATH WISH was push...

HATFUL OF FRUIT MUSICAL 'THE GANG'S ALL HERE'

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Dr-dYifNDu4/Wd3d7ommCHI/AAAAAAAAzO0/6-_zo6tbKfgaBlax1ud3CQs_3Z_sp5JQgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-10-10%2Bat%2B11.55.07%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="936" data-original-width="1600" height="233" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Dr-dYifNDu4/Wd3d7ommCHI/AAAAAAAAzO0/6-_zo6tbKfgaBlax1ud3CQs_3Z_sp5JQgCLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-10-10%2Bat%2B11.55.07%2BPM.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>One of the most bizarre moments in film's history YEAR: 1943</u></td></tr>
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Not a huge fan of musicals but anything featuring Carmen Miranda is interesting, and when it comes to this particular wartime feature by Busby Berkely titled THE GANG'S ALL HERE, it's lightly entertaining as well...<br>
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Too bad a rather bland romance encroaches upon the fantastical, borderline psychedelic first act combining a popular nightclub where Benny Goodman and band play as a show is taking place on stage before a dinner theater crowd, and the camera pans around to other characters spouting random expository between various <i>hallucinatory</i> avenues in what's the biggest, most spectacular, memorable and downright outrageously insane musical number concerning Miranda's Brazilian import Dorita, who begins as the movie's headlining talent/showcase, but when the rudimentary aspect turns talky and sappy she winds up yet another second-<i>banana</i>/cocky-friend-of-the-vulnerable-leading-lady who, played by Alice Faye opposite boorishly handsome mannequin James Ellison, breezes into the third act taking place at Ellison's original fiance's parent's house... confused? Well we'll end with the true scene stealer... Two actually... First, lanky, gangly, middle-aged character-actress Charlotte Greenwood ("you do very well what you do do" she tells Miranda): A rich lady with a cool and sleazy, progressive European past and, thankfully, once the surrounding love-triangle softens, the show's on again: featuring uncredited "Specialty Performer" Aloysio de Oliveira (check her out on youtube for proof), spinning, bounding turning, toppling whilst flying across the stage in an amazing enough matter that the movie could've ended with her and her alone.<br>

alice faye, aloysio de oliveira, benny goodman, carmen miranda, charlotte greenwood, forties, musical

HATFUL OF FRUIT MUSICAL 'THE GANG'S ALL HERE'

One of the most bizarre moments in film's history YEAR: 1943 Not a huge fan of musicals but anything featuring Carmen Miranda is int...

ROBYN HILTON BEGINS IN THE EXPLOITATION 'WONDER WOMEN'

exploitation, robyn hilton, ross hagen, seventies

ROBYN HILTON BEGINS IN THE EXPLOITATION 'WONDER WOMEN'

Robyn Hilton enters into an eclectic exploitation comedy career in Wonder Women circa 1973 As mentioned a few posts ago, ROBYN HILTON, b...

THURSDAY NIGHT REVIEW OF BLADE RUNNER 2049

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eaxrW5Vcscw/WdcfCYOshJI/AAAAAAAAzMs/1mK5jpDJgd4QmLwL5MPO27nqDp_tqTkpQCLcBGAs/s1600/tumblr_static_26osk19e9qck84sgcwogsw88w.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="995" data-original-width="1600" height="248" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eaxrW5Vcscw/WdcfCYOshJI/AAAAAAAAzMs/1mK5jpDJgd4QmLwL5MPO27nqDp_tqTkpQCLcBGAs/s400/tumblr_static_26osk19e9qck84sgcwogsw88w.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 2016</u></td></tr>
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There were actually defenders of INDIANA JONES AND THE CRYSTAL SKULL, saying the computerized monkeys and the nuked refrigerator (that just happened to land in the radiation safety zone) were par for the course... "After all, in the other movies he climbed under a truck and..." so on and so forth: But when something looks and feels legit, it's completely plausible for the viewer...<br>
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Like in the original BLADE RUNNER where an opiate haze shrouds a corporate, commercialized yet doomed, dystopian future where rain falls on flying-cars jetting through an eternal night sky of bleak neon, resembling Shanghai in an arcade purgatory: Yet all this visual glory served as a backdrop for the job of Harrison Ford's Rick Deckard, a Cop/Bounty Hunter Assassin aka "Blade Runner," whose assignment was to find and "retire" five Replicants (androids) that are "More Human Than Human." Most have already seen the classic 1982 science fiction Film Noir directed by Ridley Scott, and anyone defending this sequel will probably say, "Well the first one is long and slow too..."<br>

2017, harrison ford, ryan gosling, sequel

THURSDAY NIGHT REVIEW OF BLADE RUNNER 2049

Year: 2016 There were actually defenders of INDIANA JONES AND THE CRYSTAL SKULL, saying the computerized monkeys and the nuked refrigera...

ALICE KRIGE HAUNTS 'GHOST STORY' WITH CRAIG WASSON

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SMDNwlL5lzw/XG8o3tMiUdI/AAAAAAABAB8/e5h7ylYU7SM0rrXyJ-zqEN1fyTwzRFnhACLcBGAs/s1600/74b2c74f22e410dc38a4187097309948.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="826" data-original-width="840" height="313" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SMDNwlL5lzw/XG8o3tMiUdI/AAAAAAABAB8/e5h7ylYU7SM0rrXyJ-zqEN1fyTwzRFnhACLcBGAs/s320/74b2c74f22e410dc38a4187097309948.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Ghost Story YEAR: 1981</u></td></tr>
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Despite the hypnotic presence of gorgeous, classic, timeless beauty Alice Krige; Golden Era classic actors like Fred Astaire and Melvyn Douglas; producer turned ever-monotone veteran performer John Houseman; and dark horse Douglas Fairbanks Jr. headlining a horror movie based on an aptly titled novel by Peter Straub; the buried lead is Craig Wasson, a character-actor who looks like Bill Maher's version of a leading man...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Alice Krige Ghost Story</u></td></tr>
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And Wasson, other than Brian De Palma's BODY DOUBLE a few years later, would usually be second or third banana, featured in two Vietnam flicks in 1978, the underrated BOYS IN COMPANY C and GO TELL THE SPARTANS and, also remembered as the helpful shrink in a surprisingly decent sequel NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS, he's been around the block...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NZAXcDpDSv4/W9lYG6pJw5I/AAAAAAAA7Fg/OnUc5uu5dhIRbkrpk3xADok8gMQQ1dQDQCLcBGAs/s1600/45047225_594075421021638_5305640463015870464_n.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="877" data-original-width="602" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NZAXcDpDSv4/W9lYG6pJw5I/AAAAAAAA7Fg/OnUc5uu5dhIRbkrpk3xADok8gMQQ1dQDQCLcBGAs/s320/45047225_594075421021638_5305640463015870464_n.jpeg" width="219" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Ghost Story Alice Krige</u></td></tr>
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But enough of Craig's career... let's center on his character... or rather, <i>characters.</i>.. playing twin brothers Don and David Wanderley whose father, Fairbanks' Edward, is part of a group of four distinquished old men who gather in an annual reunion telling scary tales, and, it turns out, they might be connected to a death after Wasson's Don Wanderley, as a passive college professor, had a too-perfect love affair with a gorgeous, mysterious stranger...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Before another nude shot</u></td></tr>
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Enter Alice Krige, who also plays dual roles, kind of, and neither let their true feelings show. Her progressive character, Alma Mobley, highlights the pivotal backstory along with the four old-timers during their younger preppy high-society days, an aesthetically pleasing time-period production hindered by the fact none look like their younger selves... If you don't remember all the names of the coots from the previous scenes, you might have trouble keeping score on who's exactly who... and that's extremely important!<br />
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The spookiest aspect is thoroughly embodied in Krige herself, literally epitomizing timeless beauty, wielding a lithe prowess in the current time-line and shining even brighter in the backstory as her sophisticated yet promiscuous, and ultimately horrifying starlet makes the past blend into the present in a nicely filmed vehicle including a moody hired thug and police investigator, developing within an old fashion, page-turning aura yet not without exploiting the 1980's bloody body count horror genre that, despite some pretty dated special effects, remains nail-biting (and often downright gruesome) from beginning to end.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Alice Krige gorgeously haunts GHOST STORY</u></td></tr>
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alice krige, eighties, horror, mark hamill, nineties, peter straub, stephen king

ALICE KRIGE HAUNTS 'GHOST STORY' WITH CRAIG WASSON

Ghost Story YEAR: 1981 Despite the hypnotic presence of gorgeous, classic, timeless beauty Alice Krige; Golden Era classic actors like F...

Written by James M. Tate / 10/04/2017 / No comments / andy romano , camp , eighties , george clooney , horror , lori lethin , michael kramer , phil mckeon , scott jacoby

MARCIA BRADY & GEORGE CLOONEY RETURN TO HORROR HIGH

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>A perplexed Maureen McCormick & Pepper Martin YEAR: 1987</u></td></tr>
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Some bad horror movies know exactly what they're after, and RETURN TO HORROR HIGH toys with an audience who thinks <i>they</i> know what the characters are doing and where the story's going, and why...<br>
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Beginning in the present time, exterior night, as a tough yet gentle-giant-type police chief and a doting, surreptitiously perverse female officer, played by BRADY BUNCH oldest Maureen McCormick, are outside a high school where a multi-mutilation of bodies are a mysterious result from a confusing aftermath: Then cutting back to a horror flick being shot inside the school centering on a string of deaths that had occurred years before... Confused yet?<br>

andy romano, camp, eighties, george clooney, horror, lori lethin, michael kramer, phil mckeon, scott jacoby