cult film freak: November 2018

Written by James M. Tate / 11/28/2018 / No comments / action , body count , cult , drive-in , drugs , exploitation , killer car , marley shelton , quentin tarantino , rosario dawson , rose mcgowen , sydney poitier , thriller , vanessa ferlito , zeroes , zoë bell

VANESSA FERLITO ENHANCES QT'S EXPLOITATION 'DEATH PROOF'

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0YBeVtV3sLU/XxbVbwGLjUI/AAAAAAABWE0/f0tZEYuZUUsibzdnA0HmDnYzbkGVx8RtgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screen%25252BShot%25252B2018-11-28%25252Bat%25252B6.42.21%25252BPM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0YBeVtV3sLU/XxbVbwGLjUI/AAAAAAABWE0/f0tZEYuZUUsibzdnA0HmDnYzbkGVx8RtgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screen%25252BShot%25252B2018-11-28%25252Bat%25252B6.42.21%25252BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Foreboding perspective of Tarantino's DEATH PROOF Year: 2005</u></td></tr>
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Like there are two movies in GRINDHOUSE, there are also two in the second feature, written, directed and photographed by Quentin Tarantino titled DEATH PROOF: story one is eerie, torturous, dark, bizarre, perverse, shoddy and dodgy-looking while the second <i>looks</i> far more professionally filmed but is overall, unbearably awful... <br>
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The device of DEATH PROOF and Robert Rodriquez's co-feature, PLANET TERROR, are an abundance of deliberate aesthetic flaws: a tribute to b-movies that played so many times in low-rent "grindhouse" theaters, they wound up tarnished and with entire reels missing. In the two-parts of DEATH PROOF it's one man, Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike, who connects each...<br>

action, body count, cult, drive-in, drugs, exploitation, killer car, marley shelton, quentin tarantino, rosario dawson, rose mcgowen, sydney poitier, thriller, vanessa ferlito, zeroes, zoë bell

VANESSA FERLITO ENHANCES QT'S EXPLOITATION 'DEATH PROOF'

Foreboding perspective of Tarantino's DEATH PROOF Year: 2005 Like there are two movies in GRINDHOUSE, there are also two in the seco...

NICOLAS ROEG CHEATING DEATH IN VIENNA WITH 'BAD TIMING'

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sbq4deuLKDQ/XNAoIlSxd3I/AAAAAAABDt4/UjUalgjjb1oc3wv85JsMsn5UsMfKg4x8QCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-05-06%2Bat%2B5.26.02%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1193" data-original-width="1556" height="306" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sbq4deuLKDQ/XNAoIlSxd3I/AAAAAAABDt4/UjUalgjjb1oc3wv85JsMsn5UsMfKg4x8QCLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-05-06%2Bat%2B5.26.02%2BAM.jpeg" width="400"></a></i></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Theresa Russell playing a color test book in BAD TIMING</u></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The cinematic equivalent of a girl that's <i>just no good</i> or a "no good dame" is usually one who's simply <i>too good to be true</i>. And when a loose, liberal young lady from America — in the usually idyllic dreamland of Vienna — hooks up with a loose yet intellectual American professor who thinks he's more liberal-minded than he actually is, things go from... well in this case, worse to better to pretty bad to pretty good to downright awful... for her, that is...<br>
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Initially taking place at a hospital emergency room where Theresa Russell's Milena is being kept alive by desperate surgeons, BAD TIMING consists of flashbacks concerning her doomed romance with leading man Art Garfunkel as Alex. The most intriguing aspect of Nicolas Roeg's comparably obscure motion picture is how a dying Milena is edited into sporadic bouts of love-making, laughter, arguments, more love-making, tantrums, aspersions, more tantrums, wandering through Vienna and even a quick road trip along desert terrain, like where the late auteur shaped his future assisting David Lean on a little excursion titled LAWRENCE OF ARABIA before carving-out his own desolate territory for WALKABOUT...<br>
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art garfunkel, cop, crime, denholm elliott, eighties, harvey keitel, neo noir, nicolas roeg, theresa russell, thriller

NICOLAS ROEG CHEATING DEATH IN VIENNA WITH 'BAD TIMING'

Theresa Russell playing a color test book in BAD TIMING The cinematic equivalent of a girl that's just no good or a "no good da...

DONNA LOCKE BATTLES 'NEON MANIACS' W/ LEILANI SARELLE

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y6R91o5vt_o/W-05_3LJAnI/AAAAAAAA7aY/mNUgwOpx4iMpqd-Lt8XuPZvsLM1Ret9uwCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-11-07%2Bat%2B6.43.08%2BAM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1196" data-original-width="1600" height="298" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y6R91o5vt_o/W-05_3LJAnI/AAAAAAAA7aY/mNUgwOpx4iMpqd-Lt8XuPZvsLM1Ret9uwCLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-11-07%2Bat%2B6.43.08%2BAM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Surfer Fangforth & Tribal Birdspear in NEON MANIACS year: 1986</u></td></tr>
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Right when you think the low budget 1986 horror flick NEON MANIACS is about one thing, it goes in another direction. Which is good <i>and</i> bad...<br>
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The bad is it's an awkward and uneven film, dragging at times. The good is pretty much everything else, starting with a nighttime vanful of partying high schools students, which includes a gorgeous blonde who isn't an uptight virgin like the cliché potential sole survivor...<br>
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That's because this isn't<i> the usual</i> Body Count Slasher where doomed teens randomly perish along the way. And her shallow girlfriends and jerky guy-friends wind up quickly massacred by the titular maniacs that resemble a creation from a comic book addict's reverie, and there's a combination of nightmarish monstrosities rolled into this lethal gang including tribal warriors and mutant samurais... <br>

body count, creature, cult, donna locke, eighties, horror, indie, leilani sarelle, marta kober, monster, slasher, thriller

DONNA LOCKE BATTLES 'NEON MANIACS' W/ LEILANI SARELLE

Surfer Fangforth & Tribal Birdspear in NEON MANIACS year: 1986 Right when you think the low budget 1986 horror flick NEON MANIACS is...

GEORGE HARDY OF 'TROLL 2' CULT LEGACY IN 'TEXAS COTTON'

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fo8vXFL2r8g/W_UfY-0XOxI/AAAAAAAA7rQ/5zBNchpziu0axTzqk539N5QsSYAjDuNFgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-11-20%2Bat%2B11.39.07%2BPM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="915" data-original-width="1236" height="295" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fo8vXFL2r8g/W_UfY-0XOxI/AAAAAAAA7rQ/5zBNchpziu0axTzqk539N5QsSYAjDuNFgCLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-11-20%2Bat%2B11.39.07%2BPM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Tiffany Shepis & George Hardy stalk Texas Cotton YEAR: 2018</u></td></tr>
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A kind of CHINATOWN on sleeping pills, and taking place in the Lone Star State, TEXAS COTTON is actually a pop culture party trick of a Modern-Western Thriller, being it stars the star of what's considered the best-worst movie ever made...<br>
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That being George Hardy of infamous TROLL 2 niche fame, who in real life is a smiling, upbeat, jovial personality... and a dentist at that...<br>
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So for the ultra-serious role of a veteran cop seeking clues in a small town in which he's a dedicated and stubbornly honest sheriff, Hardy is played safe, for the most part, with a one-note, dissatisfied expression of someone who not only tasted a bitter cup of morning coffee, but has grown contemptuously accustomed to it...<br>

2018, george hardy, indie, indie corner, juliette danielle, neo noir, thriller

GEORGE HARDY OF 'TROLL 2' CULT LEGACY IN 'TEXAS COTTON'

Tiffany Shepis & George Hardy stalk Texas Cotton YEAR: 2018 A kind of CHINATOWN on sleeping pills, and taking place in the Lone Star...

TOM LAUGHLIN'S FIRST & BEST BILLY JACK 'THE BORN LOSERS'

action, biker, bob tessier, counter-culture, elizabeth james, exploitation, jack starrett, jeff cooper, jeremy slate, kung fu, sixties, tom laughlin, william wellman

TOM LAUGHLIN'S FIRST & BEST BILLY JACK 'THE BORN LOSERS'

Elizabeth James and Tom Laughlin on equal ground YEAR: 1967 THE BORN LOSERS wasn't supposed to happen but thank God it did since BIL...

COENS' WESTERN ANTHOLOGY 'THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS'

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-owvOMp5V-A0/W-8F40paDhI/AAAAAAAA7c8/yRyMgmLIp_E0CSE8iQruPpdBp2IhMTdHACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-11-16%2Bat%2B9.29.17%2BAM%2B2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="886" data-original-width="1185" height="298" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-owvOMp5V-A0/W-8F40paDhI/AAAAAAAA7c8/yRyMgmLIp_E0CSE8iQruPpdBp2IhMTdHACLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-11-16%2Bat%2B9.29.17%2BAM%2B2.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year of Release: 2018</u></td></tr>
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A more fitting title for The Coen Brothers' Western Anthology <u>THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS</u> would be <i>Six Ways to Die in the West</i>. Not only is each vignette about death, but the misleading title refers to the first story and that's it. Maybe if Tim Blake Nelson's singing cowboy was the blanket narrator it would make more sense...<br>
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Then again, he's so annoying, maybe not. In fact, SCRUGGS is one of several of the main characters that doesn't only die but deserves death: The hybrid of a THREE AMIGOS style gussied-up Amigo, Pinhead from FREAKS, Jim Varney's Ernest and Kermit the Frog, the entire point of a surprisingly lethal crooner <i>who only looks nerdy</i> steps upon the second story featuring James Franco as a scruffy bank robber, titled <u>NEAR ALGODONES</u>. In this case, Franco's outlaw loner only <i>seems</i> more resilient than a timid and chubby bank teller played by nerd's nerd Stephen Root. There's some potential in the sparse-shot, Spaghetti Western tableau, but like the first story, it ends before it really begins (and concludes with an absolutely gorgeous actress, Grace LeSueur, in a quick but very important cameo)... <br>

2018, action, anthology, coen brothers, grace lesueur, james franco, liam neeson, netflix, new, stephen root, tom waits, western

COENS' WESTERN ANTHOLOGY 'THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS'

Year of Release: 2018 A more fitting title for The Coen Brothers' Western Anthology THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS would be Six Ways ...

RAMBLING FACT-CHECKING REVIEW OF 'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY'

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VN1_XXATuI8/W-ucUC14U9I/AAAAAAAA7YQ/H7PPj2yXTL82kAuOPWjz3i9YEsMSx4M7QCLcBGAs/s1600/queen-bohemian-rhapsody-film-trailer-watch-1526391283-640x427.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="508" height="328" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VN1_XXATuI8/W-ucUC14U9I/AAAAAAAA7YQ/H7PPj2yXTL82kAuOPWjz3i9YEsMSx4M7QCLcBGAs/s400/queen-bohemian-rhapsody-film-trailer-watch-1526391283-640x427.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gwilym Lee looks more the part than Rami Malek attempts it Year: 2018</u></td></tr>
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Hardcore QUEEN fans might get frustrated, or perhaps just confused, that the movie goes from the first album's "Keep Yourself Alive" to "Killer Queen," which is okay so far since QUEEN II was more progressive rock before their stardom... but then during the first tour of America, they're playing "Fat Bottomed Girls" from the latter 70's Jazz album, and that's before recording their 1975 epic "Bohemian Rhapsody" on A Night at the Opera, skipping right past the brilliant followup A Day at the Races...<br>
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And then we're at a party hearing "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" from The Game circa 1980 before Brian May comes up with "We Will Rock You" from News of the World in 1977: and then back to The Game with "Another One Bites The Dust," ducking under the failure of the funk-themed (and actually underrated) Hot Space album, and playing the most famous track "Under Pressure" well after they supposedly broke up... which NEVER happened... And backing up to the repeated heckling of Roger Taylor's "I'm In Love With My Car," one of their greatest songs, ever...<br>

2018, biopic, music, new, rami malek

RAMBLING FACT-CHECKING REVIEW OF 'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY'

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

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

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

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

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

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

CAINE VERSES SAVALAS IN 'BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE'

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

CAINE VERSES SAVALAS IN 'BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE'

Villains of Beyond The Poseidon Adventure While not as bad a sequel as you might have been led to believe, BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE...

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

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

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

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

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

GARY KENT IN RAY STECKLER'S 'BODY FEVER' AKA 'SUPERCOOL'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Ray Dennis Steckler and Gary Kent fight in Super Cool YEAR: 1969</u></td></tr>
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Film Noir/Gumshoe/Private Eye films have a main character wandering (and wondering) from one location to the next in search of something, or someone, or both...<br>
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What they get along the way are a lot of names, mostly red herrings. Sexy dames and tough broads with tougher boyfriends. Fights. Gunshots. Psychedelic drugs and heroin or...<br>
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Well the last sentence doesn't fit the Humphrey Bogart-era films, in which this was inspired all the way to director and here main star as well, Ray Dennis Steckler looking into a HIGH SIERRA poster with his image reflecting onto Bogie's. And in SUPER COOL, the real title's shown in the opening credits despite being packaged as BODY FEVER and with other names like CHEAT FOR LIFE, THE LAST ORIGINAL B MOVIE and DEADLOCKED...<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OxC3Xk5gegQ/W9pCevEnUjI/AAAAAAAA7Lc/SKaclCr_QWghWjK4QY67GlsBHiuyZLfaACEwYBhgL/s1600/45089360_594050697690777_7978350524862824448_n.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="573" data-original-width="871" height="263" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OxC3Xk5gegQ/W9pCevEnUjI/AAAAAAAA7Lc/SKaclCr_QWghWjK4QY67GlsBHiuyZLfaACEwYBhgL/s400/45089360_594050697690777_7978350524862824448_n.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gary Kent grabs the bag of loot from his director Score: ***</u></td></tr>
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It's an urban/suburban odyssey of Steckler's scrawny gumshoe Charlie Smith, trying to find a missing dame, played by his real life star and perpetual ingenue Caroyln Brandt, who stole a ton of drugs (after all, she's a cat burglar who dresses like Catwoman)...<br>
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The best elements pit Smith against Frankie Roberts, played by Steckler's stock heavy Gary Kent (a formidable ax-murderer in THE THRILL KILLERS), who not only keeps women addicted to smack but smacks them regularly. And like those mazy Noirs of the forties and fifties, the plot is purposely convoluted: so the audience is as confused as the snoop... But the flat conclusion seems a bit forced: ending a breezy jaunt that could've gone on forever. Or at least fifteen (or ten, perhaps?) minutes longer.<br>