JENNIFER CONNELLY STEALS DENNIS HOPPER'S 'THE HOT SPOT'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzdKI01dKZiaCpAiQIG3rcN4DZrUwnNeyqDGIPju8bPy_6fizziCLPsxtnCIZu2VAGMX828ww2_oh6ja-0OACcnpsffxe68SBTdPcBrbEHpaEDtGEKNHawLK9oMpDwEYsk7SbKfsNHoyikZT7XoWsPezrfHV93pUw1miMiTQ2cVefpy1mdxrFWGI7AssHk/s1835/Screen%20Shot%202024-08-27%20at%202.20.17%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="998" data-original-width="1835" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzdKI01dKZiaCpAiQIG3rcN4DZrUwnNeyqDGIPju8bPy_6fizziCLPsxtnCIZu2VAGMX828ww2_oh6ja-0OACcnpsffxe68SBTdPcBrbEHpaEDtGEKNHawLK9oMpDwEYsk7SbKfsNHoyikZT7XoWsPezrfHV93pUw1miMiTQ2cVefpy1mdxrFWGI7AssHk/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-08-27%20at%202.20.17%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE HOT SPOT AKA  ZONA CALIENTE Year: 1990 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>You really know that director Dennis Hopper's THE HOT SPOT is a Noir when, within ten minutes of entering a new town... one that's extremely small and fitfully hot, and in Texas... Don Johnson's so smitten with local blackmailed beauty Jennifer Connelly, he questions her with the kind of irked jealousy a husband would have...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>But she's the good girl here, comparably, while stacked-blonde Virginia Madsen's our sultry femme fatale... married to Johnson's wealthy used car lot boss... as quickly taken with old Don as he was with young Connelly, and, within moments, they're sharing not only heated chemistry but explosive sack time...</p><p><span></span></p>

barry corbin, charles martin smith, dennis hopper, don johnson, heist, jennifer connelly, jerry hardin, neo noir, thriller, virginia madsen, willia sadler

JENNIFER CONNELLY STEALS DENNIS HOPPER'S 'THE HOT SPOT'

Title: THE HOT SPOT AKA  ZONA CALIENTE Year: 1990 Rating: ***1/2 You really know that director Dennis Hopper's THE HOT SPOT is a Noir wh...

DON JOHNSON WITH SUSANNE BENTON IN 'A BOY AND HIS DOG'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfjg_i1pAtNZKJeXEawtkGZVOvpgjITb7ETS61uGLkjh8usSipcX7Pbt_ZDNcDPr0Esq6O5KaKDmyVKQDcaPcUBLuIpLviAinwyTmJm-nbdfOEIssE2VJ69fG71oYDvaWsV7ojatAwp_kGuTbEtyLtJoVJWVh6t06EI92HEiF4BkI7IPjIU2Q8NQfP-g/s1803/Screen%20Shot%202022-07-11%20at%202.51.25%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="725" data-original-width="1803" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfjg_i1pAtNZKJeXEawtkGZVOvpgjITb7ETS61uGLkjh8usSipcX7Pbt_ZDNcDPr0Esq6O5KaKDmyVKQDcaPcUBLuIpLviAinwyTmJm-nbdfOEIssE2VJ69fG71oYDvaWsV7ojatAwp_kGuTbEtyLtJoVJWVh6t06EI92HEiF4BkI7IPjIU2Q8NQfP-g/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202022-07-11%20at%202.51.25%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: A BOY AND HIS DOG Pictured: Susanne Benton and Don Johnson Director: L.Q. Jones Year: 1975 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Actor L.Q. Jones adapted and directed Harlan Ellison's A DOG AND HIS BOY, creating a post-apocalyptic wasteland that influenced the entire MAD MAX template that would inspire countless other scorched earth films, all from Jones's bottom-dollar production company that'd already made two rural super-low-budget horror flicks THE WITCHMAKER and THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN... so BOY would finalize and legitimize an unconnected drive-in trilogy... <br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Which wasn't easy, taking him five-years to adapt a script that Ellison basically gave up on, and although it takes most of the dialogue from the source novella, the telepathically-speaking dog, Blood, sounds more like Jones's kind of timeworn Texan than Ellison's snotty New York intellectual, helping the titular BOY in Don Johnson's Vic find women while he helps the dog (handicapped from having the ability to speak) find food...</p><p><span></span></p>

adventure, cult, don johnson, hal baylor, harlan ellison, horror, jason robards, l.q. jones, post-apocalyptic, science-fiction, seventies, susanne benton

DON JOHNSON WITH SUSANNE BENTON IN 'A BOY AND HIS DOG'

Title: A BOY AND HIS DOG Pictured: Susanne Benton and Don Johnson Director: L.Q. Jones Year: 1975 Rating: **** Actor L.Q. Jones adapted and ...

RIAN JOHNSON DIRECTS THE ENSEMBLE MYSTERY 'KNIVES OUT'

<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="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrYHbcACOouiO9Yj5Po1m5SAznZQVSfCoTNicwQOs8PeufrsJc9F3hDVSe24c6iyA_-ddFr83q2CJNiGHn74KTvI3HUA-LfvMFd8eXDWy0tkL8d-qLg7Er_5uou4FB20md48Xs6gSFGk7S/s1600/knives_out_ver5_xlg.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="678" data-original-width="1006" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrYHbcACOouiO9Yj5Po1m5SAznZQVSfCoTNicwQOs8PeufrsJc9F3hDVSe24c6iyA_-ddFr83q2CJNiGHn74KTvI3HUA-LfvMFd8eXDWy0tkL8d-qLg7Er_5uou4FB20md48Xs6gSFGk7S/s400/knives_out_ver5_xlg.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Lakeith Stanfield solo poster for KNIVES OUT Year: 2019</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Rian Johnson must be seething that he didn't make the singular Spanish "Help" a Black woman given that, a year after KNIVES OUT hit theaters, we'd have a pandemic (closing all theaters) followed by a political uprising of African Americans, making the whole "Undocumented Worker" issue — which owns 51% of the story-line here — as dated as the Sony Walkman, Legwarmers and Bellbottoms...<br> <br> And Johnson <i>has</i> successfully resurrected the <i>Ensemble Cast Whodunnit</i>, featuring Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson (no relation), Toni Collette and Michael Shannon. But in the past they'd be playing rich, white, crooked culprits who are also eclectic, darkly-humorous, interesting and intriguing enough to create an entire story around. But as noted in, ironically, another review involving Michael Shannon (THE SHAPE OF WATER): <i>Antagonists are no longer people who do bad things, but simply, bad people...</i><br>

2019, anna de armas, christopher plummer, daniel craig, don johnson, ensemble, jamie lee curtis, lakeith stanfield, michael shannon, mystery, new, politics, thriller

RIAN JOHNSON DIRECTS THE ENSEMBLE MYSTERY 'KNIVES OUT'

Lakeith Stanfield solo poster for KNIVES OUT Year: 2019 Rian Johnson must be seething that he didn't make the singular Spanish ...

CAMERON DIAZ & LESLIE MANN IN THE OTHER WOMAN

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf1ePzFjtg6hgvDQzdNvI7579SKHWLBACbuIqLzr3xlOe0UVkEPjTi5cm8xkYfen8DgkbFw5CX-8deXxYnD_1FAeDiASB-6c-XQIiSm_klQmPGoERNpw3Mk0DKvvU0u0xnMTy9jUyda5Y/s1600/the-other-woman-mann-636-380.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf1ePzFjtg6hgvDQzdNvI7579SKHWLBACbuIqLzr3xlOe0UVkEPjTi5cm8xkYfen8DgkbFw5CX-8deXxYnD_1FAeDiASB-6c-XQIiSm_klQmPGoERNpw3Mk0DKvvU0u0xnMTy9jUyda5Y/s1600/the-other-woman-mann-636-380.jpg" width="157" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2014 rating: ***</td></tr> </tbody></table> At one point in THE OTHER WOMAN, Cindi Lauper's anthem “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” plays while the three main characters, an eclectic trio of victimized women, seek revenge on a cheating jerk... But by this time the real fun is over…<br /> <br /> In fact it only lasts about twenty minutes, and most of the credit should be given to intentional scene-stealer Leslie Mann as Kate King, the wife of a rich, handsome guy named Mark, juggling an affair with a smitten and oblivious lawyer, Carly, played by Cameron Diaz, who steps to the side as Mann takes over, frantically coming unglued while assorting to every physical comedy gag in the book... but she pulls it all off like she wrote it! Soon enough the two begin to click; a friendship built on being screwed-over simultaneously. And when they discover another conquest in Mark's life, giving the title a double (and eventually, triple) meaning, the film goes slowly downhill...<br /> <br /> Although it's still an entertaining ride, basking in pure escapism for the target female audience, but once the uncreative and childish revenge tactics occur –  from spiking booze with laxative to putting hair remover in shampoo – the camaraderie between Diaz and Mann is almost forgotten… Meanwhile, third banana Kate Upton as cliché dream girl, Amber, is just that: although sweet and likable, her character never amounts to much more than a "Barbie Doll" punchline, adding little to the mix. Yet by the end, when Mark gets his ultimate barrage of comeuppance, you’ll wonder if he deserved that much for simply being a multitasking cheat… But if you mess with three chicks in a chick flick, hell’s fury hath no limits.

2014, cameron diaz, chick flick, comedy, don johnson, leslie mann, revenge

CAMERON DIAZ & LESLIE MANN IN THE OTHER WOMAN

year: 2014 rating: *** At one point in THE OTHER WOMAN, Cindi Lauper's anthem “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” plays while the three ma...