Drive-In Movie Classics 50 Movie Pack (1975) Review

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(More customer reviews)50 DRIVE-IN MOVIE CLASSICS is yet another public domain movie bonanza! It's a mixed bag of hits, misses, and total duds! Still, most are a blast to watch, and cost so much less than other releases of the same movies that it's worth the cheap price! This collection contains nudity, gore, sick humor, etc., and well deserves it's R-rating! Now, to the movies! I'll review 'em in the order they appear and use "*" for stars. THE DEVIL W/ SEVEN FACES- *** Carrol Baker is a woman plagued by the thieving partners of her twin sister. A nice twist ending you'll see coming for miles! TWISTER'S REVENGE- ** (This is on my copy instead of FIEND) A monster-truck w/ artificial intelligence helps it's driver defeat the crooks who want to steal it. Pretty dumb, but fun enough. DAY OF THE PANTHER- *** Aussie kung-fu! Ed Stazak is the fu master, out to get a druglord. Features a kung-fu fighting guy in a pig mask w/ a machette! How can you lose?? CREEPER (AKA: RITUALS)- **** Hal Holbrook stars as a doctor who goes camping w/ a group of other doctors in the deep woods, only to be stalked by a crazed murderer! Excellent! COUNT DRACULA AND HIS VAMPIRE BRIDE (aka: SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA)- **** Christopher Lee is Drac and Peter Cushing is Van Helsing in this mod 70s vampire epic. The Count wants to wipe out mankind w/ a super-plague! Also stars AB FAB's Joanna Lumley! Watch for the nekkid sacrifice too! COUNTRY BLUE- *** Hillbillies run amok in this southern fried cops 'n' robbers saga! Dub Taylor's in it as well. GOING STEADY- ** Somewhat humorous, yet boring little tale of teens in 1950s Tel Aviv. Sort of PORKY'S in Israel! Contains nudity galore! MAD DOG (aka: BEAST WITH A GUN)- **** Helmut Berger is sleazebag, escaped convict Nanni Vitally in this bloody, rape-filled extravaganza of trashiness! He's vengeful and deadly! I WONDER WHO'S KILLING HER NOW?- * Horrible, dull, "comedy" about a guy trying to collect on his wife's life insurance. Ugg! SAVAGE WEEKEND- *** A masked murderer is on the loose! Deaths ensue. William Sanderson is a wacked out sort of guy, but is he the killer? Good stuff! BLACK HOOKER- ** Depressing tale of a mixed up kid who longs for his prostitute mum's love, only to be rejected by her and everyone else. Lots of nudity, rape, etc. JIVE TURKEY- *** OK story about black hoods against italian mobsters. Check out the transvestite assassin w/ the killer heels! ABSOLUTION- **** Richard Burton is a priest in a catholic boys' school who finds himself caught up in a psychotic game of death after he tells his class about the absolute secrecy of confession. Great! BREAKOUT FROM OPPRESSION- *** A woman is stalked and tormented by someone after being released from prison. Interesting and different. CREEPERS (aka: PHENOMENA)- **** A shortened version of Argento's classic. A young girl (Jennifer Connelly) who can psychically communicate w/ insects teams up w/ an entimologist (Donald Pleasance) to catch a serial-killer. Awesome! DON'T OPEN 'TIL CHRISTMAS- *** Someone's killing people who are dressed as Santa! Includes a urinal-side castration scene! Yikes! SNOWBEAST- *** Clint Walker, Bo Svenson, and Yvette Mimeau track down a murderous yeti at a ski resort. HORROR OF THE ZOMBIES- * Those rickety-skeleton templar monks are back. This time, some tasty fashion models are on the menu! Watch for the ship of doom (a toy boat that bobs along in someone's bathtub)! Hilarious! MAMA DRACULA- A good idea gone bad. Louise Fletcher is the queen of the damned, looking for virgins' blood to bath in. Alas, there just aren't as many virgins nowadays! This one would have been better if about 45 mins had been lopped off! MURDER MANSION- ** A group of travelers end up in a mansion surrounded by fog. A witch lives there, and mayhem ensues. The twist ending is not so good! TRAUMA- *** Schoolgirls are being murdered! They all have a connection to a horrible past event. Lots of nudity and a rather disturbing premise! UNSANE (aka: TENEBRES)- **** Yep, another Argento gem! Tony Franciosa is a writer of violent thrillers who has a killer using his books as a blueprint for murder! Bloody! VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES- *** Paul Naschy plays a dual role as a wimpy mystic and his evil twin brother. The evil Paul is raising dead women from the grave to exact revenge on his enemies. These babes look more like Manson gals than zombies! VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST- ** Folks on a cruiseship are haunted by a mummy. So-so at best. Gets an extra star for the fire-eating bellydancer! Rowwrr! IN HOT PURSUIT (aka: POLK COUNTY POT PLANE)- ** It's Cheech and Chong meets Smokey And The Bandit, as hillbilly hippies smuggle pot. Car chases galore! Cheap and cheesy! SHOCK- **** Vincent Price is a doctor who murders his wife. He is witnessed by a woman who goes into shock because of it, and becomes his next patient! INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS (aka: GRAVEYARD TRAMPS)- ***** Men are dying from a love overload as Anitra Ford (Messiah Of Evil) leads her swarm of Bee girls on a mating rampage! Stick around for the ultra-sticky marshmallow cream sequence! Great heavenly days! Loads of nude bodies in this masterpiece! KATIE'S PASSION- **** This early Paul Verhoven effort is about a girl who is forced into prostitution in order to survive. It's a good movie w/ one scene that shocked even me! I'll never look at shadow puppets the same way again! THE WEREWOLF VS. VAMPIRE WOMAN- *** Paul Naschy gets hairy and seeks someone to release him from his curse. He needs a silver cross that is located in the heart of the witch / vampire queen! The battle is short and at the very end of the movie! SPARE PARTS- *** A young couple is rudely interupted during their honeymoon when a gang of organ thieves kidnaps the husband! DEATH BY DIALOGUE- * Awful, direct-to-video abomination about a haunted movie script. Pitiful! LEGACY OF BLOOD- *** John Carradine is barely in this film as a "dead" guy w/ a useless family of letches. He'll give them his inheritence only if they stay a week in his mansion. Faith Demergue (This Island Earth) and Jeff Morrow (Kronos) co-star. THE MANIPULATOR- ** Mickey Rooney jumps, dances, screams, emotes, and kills Keenan Wynn in this psychedelic / psychopathic story about an ex-make-up man gone bananas! Rooney is frightening at times (not in a good way)! Luanne Anders (Dementia 13, Night Tide) is along for the manic ride! THROW OUT THE ANCHOR!- *** G-rated family fare about an oddball collection of people trying to save a cove from developers. Dina Merrill was still hot in her 40s! NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR- ***** Oh my! An anthology of truncated movies w/ hideous 80's music segments and a God / Satan philosophical debate holding them together! You get mutilations by hacksaw, nazis, electrocutions, claymation demons, a giant blood-sucking fly, and Richard Moll as a sadistic maniac! A must see! THE GUY FROM HARLEM- * The mountainous afros and plaid polyester suits can't save this toilet raft! Dull to the point of agony! DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT- **** The new nurse is in for a surprise! The mental hospital she's just started working for has undergone some drastic changes recently! Vats of blood and neggidness! PRISONER OF THE LOST UNIVERSE- ** Even Kay Lenz and John Saxon can't save this sci-fi elephant tranquilizer! RATTLERS- *** Chemicals dumped in the desert have turned harmless rattlesnakes into manhunting killers! OK. SAVAGE JOURNEY- * Dull portrayal of history of the mormon church. Richard Moll plays Joseph Smith. ISLAND MONSTER- *** Boris Karloff is either a kindly doctor or a homicidal drug smuggler. Better than I expected. BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE- **** One of my favorite Corman productions! Made for no money at all, and yet it holds up as a good monster movie! THE FIRING LINE- * RAMBO / MISSING IN ACTION clone w/ lots of gunfire and explosions, but no real characters to actually care about! Abysmal! Shannon Tweed's in it, but don't get your hopes up! TREASURE OF TAYOPA- *** Treasure hunters in mexico encounter tragedy when one of their party turns out to be a murderous lunatic! THE LAZARUS SYNDROME- ** Louis Gossett jr. is a cardiologist in this long forgotten TV pilot. It's not bad, but leads nowhere since the show never materialized. PRIME TIME (aka: AMERICAN RASPBERRY)- ***** This movie is worth the price of this entire collection! In the tradition of THE GROOVE TUBE, KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE, and TUNNELVISION, PRIME TIME is better than any of these! Someone has taken control of our tv sets, showing outrageous programming w/ such shows as: "Poodles For Christ" and "The Sexual Deviants Telethon"! There are many, many more, even more insane and hysterically funny shows! If you liked National Lampoon magazine in it's 70s hayday, then you'll love this! THE LEGEND OF BIGFOOT- * A home movie w/ terrible voice-overs! Wretched cess! SLAVE OF THE CANNIBAL GOD- **** Ursula Andress and Stacey Keach lead a rescue team deep into the south american jungles to find Ms. Andress' husband. Uh-oh! Those pesky cannibals await! This is the cut version w/ limited animal deaths and nudity. Alas, Ursula's infamous scene has been clipped! The movie itself is still worth watching though. TNT JACKSON- *** TNT is out to avenge her brother's death. Her stunt-double will stop at nothing to achieve revenge! Contains the topless karate scene! WOMEN OF DEVIL'S ISLAND- *** Women look for gold and get tortured. A "reformer" arrives on the notorious isle. However, he has a secret! Pretty decent. Alright, That's the lot! I highly recommend this collection. Enjoy...

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Time to get the popcorn and lean back the recliner for 50 drive-in classics that will take you back to a golden era of over-acting and cheesy special effects. Find the best and worst of undiscovered Drive-in cinema featuring box office legends and complete unknowns.

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The Ed Wood Box (Glen or Glenda / Jail Bait / Bride of the Monster / Plan 9 from Outer Space / Night of the Ghouls / The Haunted World of Ed Wood) (1956) Review

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(More customer reviews)I got this in the mail the other day, and what a great set! For the price it costs to buy "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and "Bride of the Monster" together, you get ALL the films of Ed Wood -- minus the pornographic ones he slunk down to making at the end of his career -- in one convenient box. (Note: These are NOT newly rereleased DVDs, just the same ones from Image Entertainment all bundled together at a low price.)
Ed Wood is labeled the "Worst Director of All Time", but that really isn't true. These movies not only feature Bela Lugosi in his final roles, but they are also great entertainment in a "so bad it's good" kind of way. For a movie to be the worst movie of all time, it can't have any entertainment value whatsoever. I'd rather watch an Ed Wood movie than a Freddie Prinze Jr. movie any day.
The picture on these DVDs is grainy, and that can be a good or a bad thing depending on who you are. For me, it's a good thing because it helps to hide some of the weaker special effects.
Amazon.com doesn't list the special features, so I will list them for you: theatrical trailers for "Glen or Glenda", "Bride of the Monster", and "Plan 9"; FLYING SAUCERS OVER HOLLYWOOD -- the excellent two-hour retrospective documentary about the making of Plan 9. And you get a bonus DVD, "The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood, Jr.", containing audio commentary by Bela Lugosi Jr., "A&E Biography"'s interview with Brett Thompson and Mike Gabriel, the Sci Fi Channel's news coverage of the world premiere, a collection of outtakes and behind the scenes footage, films of the Ed Wood Reunion at the Palm Springs Film Festival and the biggest Wood parade at the Hollywood premiere, galleries, and Ed Wood's rarely seen 23-minute first film CROSSROADS OF LAREDO.
P.S. As of this review, Amazon.com says it will take two to four weeks for this item to ship. That's ridiculous. I ordered this set from another online retailer, and I got it three days later.

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Weird! Wild! Wood! The most legendary B-movie director of all time, Edward D. Wood, Jr. assaulted audiences worldwide with a string of bizarre, no-budget fusions of horror, science fiction, noir and comedy. Now his oddball legacy is finally collected in one indispensable box set! Feast your eyes on his first feature, the madcap Glen or Glenda? in which Eddie himself portrays a transvestite struggling with his addiction to angora while Bela Lugosi offers inscrutable narration. Blackmail, outlaws on the run, and plastic surgery collide in the surreal crime drama Jail Bait, featuring a young Steve Reeves (Hercules), while Bela returns to create the Bride of the Monster in a heady collision of atomic experiments, a rampaging octopus and clumsy assistant Lobo (played by wrestler Tor Johnson). Wood's indisputable disasterpiece, Plan 9 from Outer Space, offers pie-plate flying saucers, incompetent alien leaders, all-seeing psychic Criswell, goth favorite Vampira and a post-mortem appearance by Lugosi himself in his last film role. Then Lobo and a phony spiritualist usher in a Night of the Ghouls at a spooky marsh filled with shuffling undead and wailing ghosts. Finally, learn all about the man himself with The Haunted World of Ed Wood, a comprehensive disc packed with interviews, film clips, TV rarities and much more! It's enough to make you scream!

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Kamikaze Girls (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)`Kamikaze Girls' is a delightful, pop, unique, and utterly sweet tale of the friendship between two Japanese girls Momoko and Ichigo. Sure, some part of the film's very disarming charms can be appreciated more with knowledge of modern Japanese culture, but that doesn't mean the film should be seen only by the small coterie of moviegoers. After all the film's theme is a universal one.
First, remember the film's original title (and its original novel) is called `Shimotsuma Monogatari' (The story of Shimotsuma) because this actual town that is located in the northern suburb of Tokyo City (about 60 km to the north of the metropolis) is the place where we meet our cute heroines.
OK, this rural town is the place where Momoko (meaning literally `peach-child' in Japanese) is living. She loves wearing pretty, girlish (and expensive) clothing (usually referred to `Lolita' or `Lolita Fashion' in Japan) and in order to buy them she goes all the way to Tokyo. One day, she thinks of a brilliant idea to get money. Following the `business' of her ex-yakuza father, Momoko sells counterfeit designer clothing on the net.
Only one customer shows up. It is Ichigo (literally meaning `strawberry'), a teenage girl clad in a long coat (signature of Japanese teenage motorcycle gangs), and riding a ridiculously decorated pink-colored scooter. Somehow this incongruous pair of girls gets friendlier to each other, and Momoko, confirmed loner, finds there is something precious that she cannot buy, more precious than the fancy dress that she is wearing.
[DELIGHTFUL] The incredibly charming film is not so much about the story as the two incredibly charming characters Momoko (Kyoko Fukada) and Ichigo (Anna Tsuchiya). From the exaggerated cartoon-ish style of introduction, we immediately fell in love with these heroines, whose unique outlook on life and original code of behavior perfectly matches their equally unique and original fashion. Actually, Momoko's costumes are one of the assets of the film, which will be good inspiration for designers.
Unfortunately, some amusing scenes might be lost on non-Japanese viewers, which heavily rely on the linguistic differences between some regions in Japan. Please remember this. Momoko's father is from Kansai area, of which dialect is more down-to-earth and slightly earthy than the words Momoko usually uses with a posh voice, who loves the French rococo fashion. Momoko's always gramatically correct speech makes a great contrast with Ichigo's frequent verbal slip-ups when heard in Japanese. And as to the several funny episodes about selling counterfeit goods, they are very exaggerated, but not totally fictional.
But you don't have to worry about the languages, because the joy of `Kamikaze Girls' means its amusing visuals and portraits of the likable heroines, Momoko and Ichigo. The only thing I disagree with `Kamikaze Girls' is its misleading English title. Why not call it simply like `Momoko and Ichigo' or something? Otherwise it is an absolutely charming film with these cute, lovely, and inimitable heroines.
By the way, contrary to the impression you might have from the role of Ichigo, Anna Tsuchiya started her career as fashion model.

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District B13 (2004) Review

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(More customer reviews)Set in the year of 2010, `Dictrict B13' features two no-nonsense fighters Damian and Leito in the titular crime-infested area near the city of Paris. They fight the drug-addicted kingpin and his thugs before finally saving the world too. The story of French action film `District B13' (written by Luc Besson) needs lots of suspense of disbelief even though in reality we recently witnessed the outbreak of riots in this country. Still the actions of are all first-rate, and the two leads of the film Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle are more impressive than any other famous names from the Hollywood products.
Part buddy-buddy movie features crime-fighting Damian (stunt-turned actor Cyril Raffaelli, `Kiss of the Dragon') and ex-thug Leito (David Belle), both of whom have to join forces to accomplish the missions of their own. Not much is original, I admit, as far as the script by Luc Besson and Bibi Naceri (the latter also appears as the mobster) is concerned, but we are not watching this film for the story, and you should know it.
[EYE-POPPING STUNTS] The film will grab your attention from the opening section, where Leito runs away from the thugs sent from the gangster. For incredibly agile David Belle, jumping on the rooftops from one building to the other (like Jackie Chan in `Rumbles in Bronx') is not enough. Before doing these breath-taking stunts, he actually climbs down on the wall of the building, jumping from a balcony to the one below. And that's only the beginning of the eye-popping action sequences, in which like Buster Keaton he keeps running inside and outside of the buildings, and his rhythmical movements are often so beautiful that you might forget that he is really doing a death-defying actions.
[NO WIRE, NO CGI] Cyril Raffaelli is also great, showing the martial arts skills only the real stunt persons can reveal. You just have to see their stunts that are done by the actors themselves without using any wire and special effects (that's why it was shot in Romania, where the regulations are less strict). Their stunts remind the film fans of one Thai movie `Ong-Bak,' but the stunts in this French actioner are done in a different style with more vertical movements and less bone-crunching fighting. And they are both fantastic.
This is a non-stop French action hugely entertaining with incredible actions. You may not like the preposterous story, but once these actions start, you just cannot blink a second.

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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2-Disc Ultimate Edition) (1974) Review

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(More customer reviews)First, the movie. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is probably one of the scariest movies ever made. It was unique for its time, and there's still nothing quite like it today. The plot doesn't sound like much- 2 women and 3 men make a drive to rural Texas to check out a graveyard that has been 'defiled', and to also relax and enjoy themselves. This last part of their vacation plan doesn't go real smoothly, as they make the mistake of wandering into an area where an insane, backwoods, inbred, cannibalistic sociopathic family live. Things get more and more horrifying from there.
I've heard people complain this movie isn't scary and not gory enough. As far as the gore, it is fairly low-key by today's standards (though I'm sure my mother wouldn't want to watch it, and it couldn't be shown un-cut on regular network TV). There's not a lot of blood till the end of the movie, but the acting is so good, and the screams of the victims so wrenching, your imagination fills in the rest and it actually is painful to watch. I will agree that the movie is kind of slow to get started- I admit the first time I saw it as a teenager I was getting impatient for some action. However, the last half of the movie more than makes up for it.
But if you think this movie isn't scary, I seriously doubt you've watched alone, at home, at night, with all the lights off. The first time I saw it was in the daytime, and it still made my hair stand on end. When I got the Special Edition DVD I unwisely watched it after midnight with the lights off. I couldn't sleep until the sun came up. The opening scene of the rotting corpse in the cemetery wired to a headstone alone made my skin crawl. The scene where Pam first discovers Leatherface's room, with the furniture made of bones and the chickens in bird-cages, gets scarier each time I see it. The last 20 minutes, at the dinner table, has to be one of the most grueling and realistic scenes to sit through ever made. The final few images--well, over 10 years went by between the last time I saw the movie and the time I watched it on DVD a few weeks ago, and I *still* could remember those shots so vividly it was like I saw it yesterday.
The DVD is incredible-the transfer is so crisp that it seems like the movie was filmed last year instead of in the early 70's. Since I'd only seen it on "pan & scan" VHS, I never really appreciated how beautiful some shots of the rural setting are, and also how well-thought out and carefully put together most of the cinematography is. Breathtaking, actually. Until the commentary pointed it out, I never realized how perfect and effective the long, continuous shot of Pam hesitantly getting up off the porch swing and slowly walking to the screen door is. This movie does not look at all amateurish, even though it was made on an extremely low budget.
The DVD is packed with cool and interesting special features. First, the commentary by Tobe Hooper, Gunnar Hansen aka Leatherface, and director of photography Daniel Pearl is fascinating. There's lots of subtle but powerful elements in the movie I missed till now-for instance, the lack of almost any score or soundtrack that gives it a documentary feel, making it that much more disturbing. Hardcore fans of this movie know already this was NOT an easy shoot by any standards, but their accounts of how much energy and work it took to get certain things right, not to mention the really tortuous things many of the actors went through...well, if any actor deserves to be paid millions for a movie, this cast certainly earned it. The dinner scene was the most horrendous- they could only do one take, it went on for 20+ hours, and this was in 110 degree heat with no air conditioning. Gunnar Hansen said that by the end, he was so out of it he started to think he wasn't acting. Kind of gives the tag line "Who will survive and what will be left of them?" a whole new meaning.
There's also some deleted and alternate scenes, including some "lost footage" never available before. With many of them, you can read the script excerpt of the scene first. There's a hilarious blooper reel-the quality isn't that great, but you'll laugh your butt off. There's lots of production notes and stills, along with shots of rare publicity material. A couple scenes are broken down shot by shot, with Hooper explaining why he made the directing and editing choices he did. There's even more, I just don't have room for it all. The menu is also pretty great. I highly recommend the Special Edition to anyone who is a fan of TCM. You'll be able to spend hours enjoying it, and they couldn't have done a better job. My recommendation (for what it's worth) is to get this one fast, because it would be a shame if it went out of print and so many people missed this wonderful collector's edition.

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It has been called "grisly," "sick," and "perverse," as well as "raw," "unshakeable," and "the movie that redefined horror." It was attacked by churches, banned by governments, and acclaimed by only the bravest of critics. It stunned audiences worldwide and set a new standard in movie terror forever. In 1974, writer-producer-directorTobe Hooper unleashed this dark, visionary tale about a group of five young friends who face a nightmare of torment at the hands of a depraved Texas clan. Today it remains unequaled as a landmark of outlaw filmmaking and unparalleled in its impact as perhaps the most frightening motion picture ever made.
Dark Sky Films presents this masterpiece like you've never seen or heard it before, newly transferred in High Definition from the 16mm camera originals, remixed in 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo Surround, and featuring never-before-seen Bonus Features produced exclusively for this definitive collection.
Bonus Features:

Steelbook Packaging
Feature-length commentary with actors Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Allen Danzinger, and art director Robert A. Burns
Feature-length commentary with director Tobe Hooper, cinematographer Daniel Pearl, and actor Gunnar Hansen
Theatrical Trailers & TV and Radio Spots
"The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Shocking Truth"
"Flesh Wounds"
A Tour of the TCSM house with Gunnar Hansen
Deleted Scenes and Outtakes
Blooper Reel
"The Shocking Truth" Outtakes
Still Gallery

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Walking Tall (1973) Review

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(More customer reviews)This movie is certainly one of the bloodiest true stories ever filmed. Even though many of the scenes in the film are fictionalized for dramatic effect, there are many scenes in this film that did happen to Buford Pusser in real life and that is what makes so many scenes in the film shocking.
Joe Don Baker gives his best performance as Buford Pusser, a retired wrestler who after being brutally beaten in a local nightclub, exacts revenge on the very same people who did it. Pusser is arrested by the corrupt town sheriff and is taken to court for his actions. Thanks to a sympathetic jury, Pusser is rightly found not guilty and takes up his friend's plan to run for town sheriff against his wife's wishes.
While serving his term as sheriff, he is constantly followed, shot at, lied to, and eventually in one of the bloodiest scenes ever put on film, ambushed while driving with his wife, Pauline (played by Elizabeth Hartman). Pauline is brutally murdered and Buford Pusser is severely wounded when he is shot in the face several times with a machine gun.
Director Phil Karlson managed to make a terrific biographical action film with just one serious flaw. People who love spotting bloopers will find more than their fair share in this film. There are at least seven scenes in this movie where the boom mic comes into the frame or the shadow of the boom mic operator is seen along the wall.
If you can get by that, you will be left with a terrific movie.
Parents: Don't let children younger than 14 watch this film. There are numerous scenes of graphic, extreme violence (eg: Pusser's many beatings and gunfights) and coarse language.

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Based on true events in the life of Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser, who "removes" corruption in his county with a four-foot-long wooden club. When the criminals attack his family, Buford shoots a whorehouse manager in the head and runs hillbilly gangsters over with his car.

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Hairspray (1988) Review

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(More customer reviews)I think it's safe to say that Hairspray is a unique motion picture. The film, while providing nonstop fun and laughs throughout, also manages to not only confront but to roll right over prejudice in several of its nefarious guises. I was a teenager when this film came out, and sadly, it was the death of Divine (just before the movie was released) that made me aware of this film. I don't know if that publicity helped or hurt ticket sales - Divine, for those who have never heard of him, was famous for playing female roles, and Hairspray had begun to rejuvenate his whole career. As for the film, it's extremely campy in the best of ways, overflowing with great singing and dancing from the early 1960s, and it is the type of film that makes you feel good after you watch it.
Ricki Lake plays Tracy Turnblad, a big, bold, and beautiful teenager who dreams of dancing on the exceedingly popular Corny Collins dance show. Her mother, played by Divine, isn't too crazy about modern music and dancing - until Tracy auditions and gets a spot on the show. Strutting her stuff in front of the cameras, she quickly becomes Baltimore's newest sensation. This does not sit well with Amber von Tussle (Colleen Fitzpatrick), as Tracy steals her man and then threatens to win the coveted title of Miss Auto Show 1963. Tracy is overweight, but she likes herself just as she is and easily dismisses the fat jokes thrown her way early on. The big issue in this film, though, is segregation. Tracy and her best friend Penny Pingleton (Joann Havrilla) soon become friends with some of the black kids in town and begin working toward integrating the Corny Collins show. Collins is all for the idea himself, as currently the Negro show runs only once each month under the controls of sassy Motormouth Mabel (Ruth Brown). The station manager will not hear of integration, though, and Penny's mother is aghast to find out that her daughter is in love with an African-American. This is 1962, of course. The whole segregation issue becomes the basic foundation of the movie as it dances its way to the end, making Hairspray a wonderfully entertaining film with a serious message behind it.
The film is blessed with many interesting cast members. Divine plays not only Mrs. Turnblad but also the station manager, Jerry Stiller plays Mr. Turnblad, Sonny Bono and Debbie Harry (and Debbie Harry's increasingly interesting hair) come together to play Amber von Tussle's parents, and Ric Ocasek and Pia Zadora show up as Beatniks in a strange little cameo appearance. Of course, Ricki Lake pretty much steals the show as the big girl with big dreams, although I found Joann Havrilla's performance as Penny Pingleton quite captivating in a weird sort of way.
It is very difficult to describe Hairspray; you pretty much have to watch it to get a true feel for its entertainment assets and social commentary underpinnings. It does have its silly moments, but this is not entertainment for the sake of entertainment, nor is this a film you will soon forget after watching it.

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Blue Velvet (Special Edition) (1986) Review

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(More customer reviews)I just recently saw David Lynch's "Blue Velvet" on the big screen (and in widescreen) for the first time. Having seen it now in its original aspect ratio, I can't bear to go back to my pan-and-scan videotape. Thank goodness that it's coming out on DVD."Blue Velvet," quite simply, is the best film of the 1980's; the only film that comes close to it is Scorsese's "Raging Bull." "Blue Velvet" was so ahead of its time when it was first released back in 1986. In fact, it remains so today, judging by the bewildered faces of people who were at the revival showing I attended. The film precedes "American Beauty" in blowing the doors off of the closet that Suburbia keeps its skeletons in, telling the story of a young college kid who, after finding a severed human ear, gets caught up in murder and mayhem in his hometown of "Lumberton USA."Lynch goes to great lengths to set up his picture-book depiction of small-town American life (complete with bright red fire trucks, white picket fences, and blue skies) before taking a wrecking ball to it. Like he did in his debut, "Eraserhead," Lynch shows us what we look like (tedium and all) but purposely twists our view of it, like a mad optometrist giving us the wrong eyeglass prescription.Apart from the fine directing, "Blue Velvet" boasts an excellent cast that delivers each line with patented Lynch-quirkiness. Kyle MacLachlan plays Jeffrey Beaumont like a modern-day Dante, travelling through the Inferno he never knew his hometown was. Isabella Rosselini is spectacularly disturbing as Dorothy Vallens, a lounge singer whose husband and son have been abducted. Her character is a first: a femme fatale who is more dangerous to herself than anyone else. And in what may be one of the top ten tour-de-force performances of all time, Dennis Hopper, as oxygen-huffing crime boss/hedonist Frank Booth, makes you laugh one minute, and cringe with fear the next after realizing that such a person probably does exist.You may not agree that "Blue Velvet" is the best film of the 80's but you'll have to do some digging to find one more original. It is a contemporary film noir classic that deserves to withstand the test of time like older noir classics such as "Double Indemnity" and "The Big Sleep." So far, it appears to be holding up. It's a strange world and "Blue Velvet" (both the film itself and the fact that it was made) is solid proof of just how strange it can be.

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Crash (1997) Review

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(More customer reviews)David Cronenberg takes chances and his pushing the edge of cinematic art is what makes his films so interesting. JG Ballard's controversial novel CRASH seemed an unlikely prospect for a film, so dark were its explorations of the outer zones of excitation and their relationship to near-death events. But Cronenberg worked through making Ballard's visions visual and his screenplay based on Ballard's book is more about interior dialogue and visceral sexual encounters as they relate to trauma.
James Ballard (James Spader) is a successful TV director who spends as much time as a lothario as he does making film. He is married to Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger) whose own sexuality leads her into stray paths. The two seem to connect physically but the fire is diminishing: they both concur that encounters with other partners enhance their sexual experiences. James is in a car accident and survives with a broken leg and scars, but the other car's male driver was killed and his surviving female companion Helen Remington (Holly Hunter) is hospitalized with James. While in the hospital both encounter a strange, scarred, limping male photographer Vaughn (Elias Koteas) who takes photos of the scars and trauma results of both James and Helen. Catherine visits James in the hospital and seems to find excitement in the scars and orthopedic paraphernalia binding her husband.
Once James is released from the hospital he is strangely drawn to the car he wrecked and finds Helen in the same mindset. The two move into physical attraction as well as an emotional attraction to Vaughn. Vaughn is obsessed with auto accidents, having been in many, and he stages famous car accidents (James Dean, Jayne Mansfield, etc) for a captive audience - which includes James, Helen, and Catherine. Vaughn insidiously draws the three into his obsession, sharing his 'actors' and fellow travelers - including Gabrielle (Rosanna Arquette - with both legs in orthopedic mechanisms), Colin and Vera Seagrave (Peter MacNeill and Cheryl Swarts) and those who help him stage his 'accidents'. Vaughn explains that he is exploring how to achieve that sensation of terror one feels during a car crash and equate it with orgasm. The odd group of folks all sexually interact with abandon: the crashed car becomes the bedchamber for bizarre sexual acting out. And how this all plays out in the end is the part of the film that simply must be seen to feel the experience.
This is clearly NOT a movie for everyone. The CD contains both the NC and the R rated version: I watched the NC version and while it is graphic and focused on sex it is oddly uninvolving emotionally - we care little about the people we meet. Perhaps part of the story here is that with the progressively dehumanization of man in his symbiotic relationship with machines, relating to fellow humans on anything except the sensual gratification is something we are losing. That is the kind of powerful statement Cronenberg shows us with these passionate yet cold people. The cast is exceptional, especially Koteas whose warped character is wholly three-dimensional as opposed to the oddly uninvolved characters Spader, Unger, and Hunter portray. A dizzying experience! Grady Harp, October 05

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A psycho-sexual journey into oblivion in this controversial film from acclaimed director David Cronenberg. James Spader is a bored film director who explores new realms after a near-fatal car accident introduces him to a world of sexually obsessed car cra
DVD Features:FeaturetteOtherProduction NotesTheatrical Trailer

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Napoleon Dynamite (2004) Review

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(More customer reviews)I love independent films, but the truth is that some of them you have to cut a tiny bit of slack due to their lack of resources. But not NAPOLEON DYNAMITE. Seeing this was one of the most delightful, unexpected pleasures that I have had in a movie in a long, long time. Most high school comedies dealing with school nerds are a bit of a cheat, because the nerds are never really as nerdy as the ones we all knew or (or perhaps were) in high school. My favorite TV show is BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, but I could never really buy the ultra-cute Alyson Hannigan as a school nerd. But not so Napoleon Dynamite, his friend Pedro, or Deb, the reserved and shy girl he has a crush on.
No explanation is made of Napoleon's name, but any Elvis Costello fan knows that in the 1980s he declared that he would no longer be known as Elvis Costello, but instead as Napoleon Dynamite, under which name he released what may have been his last great album, BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE. The producers have independently declared that they were unaware of that and chose the name without reference to Elvis Costello. This is, of course, utterly absurd, about as believable as someone making a movie with the lead character named Anna Karenina but claiming to be ignorant that Tolstoy had a character by that name.
The movie depicts the private hell that is the life of Napoleon Dynamite, a hopelessly inept misfit at Preston High School in Idaho, apparently without any friends at all until he stumbles upon a new Hispanic student Pedro, who apparently is incapable of speaking any word with more than one syllable or of smiling (until the very end of the film). Napoleon makes nerds look cool. School is such hell for Napoleon that it seems perfectly normal for one kid as he is walking down the hall to body slam him up against his locker. It isn't just that he is clueless, he is cursed; he not only thinks it is OK to stuff tater tots into his pocket, unwrapped, for snacking on later, it is inevitable that another kid will crush them in his pocket when he refuses to share.
If Napoleon's life is awful at school, it is as bad at home. We are clueless as to the whereabouts or fate of his parents, but his slacker and equally nerdy brother provides neither companionships nor solace, and when his grandmother injures herself in a ATV sand dune accident, his Uncle Rico, a fortyish Peter Pan so desperately yearning for 1982 that he orders a home made time travel machine over the Internet, who is as pathetic in his own way as either Napoleon or his brother Kip.
Plot is not really important in the film; the process of Napoleon's life is. This could easily have been a terrible film, but director Jered Hess (born, by the way, in Preston, Idaho), who co-wrote the screenplay with his wife Jerusha, displays throughout a deft touch at keeping things interesting and funny instead of merely silly. The actors are all excellent, though for the most part near unknowns. I recognized only two performers, one being Diedrich Bader, who has been in a number of roles over the years, perhaps more memorably in OFFICE SPACE as the protagonist's next door neighbor, with whom he would have conversations through the wall. Here he has a hysterical stint as an absurd martial arts instructor. I also knew Tina Majorino, who has been in a number of films over the years, primarily as a child. She does a great job as Deb, though her role (as is Napoleon's) is a bit of a cheat on the audience. They make her up to be as unattractive as possible, when she is, in fact, quite a cutie, as the improved hair-do at the end of the film proves. The cheat with Napoleon is the fact that he . . . well, I won't spoil things. Let's just say that by the end of the film he isn't the helpless nerd we imagine. I especially enjoyed Efren Ramirez as the monosyllabic Pedro. He underplays his role to the point of parody.
I do highly recommend this movie. NAPOLEON DYNAMITE is a thoroughly unique, fun, and funny film, that isn't quite like anything else I've seen. One might say that it is not unlike a male-oriented version of WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE set in rural Idaho.

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Napoleon Dynamite is a new kind of hero, complete with a tight red 'fro, sweet moon boots, and skills that can’t be topped. Napoleon spends his days drawing mythical beasts, duking it out with his brother, Kip, and avoiding his scheming Uncle Rico. When t

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Fight Club (10th Anniversary Edition) (1999) Review

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(More customer reviews)When I'm looking at the Top Ten list's of America's critics and the nominations of the DGA,WGA and all the other guilds and press associations, I terribly miss David Fincher's outstanding film "Fight Club", which is possibly the best film of 1999.
Not only is the film visualy stunning, it is also very thought-provoking, wickedly funny and, above all, extremely entertaining. Only few films managed to be so many things at once. David Fincher, in my opinion one of the most exciting directors of the decade, fills his movie with so many ideas that it would be sufficient for three more movies, and they are not just gimmicks for their own sake, they all mean something. Edward Norton and Brad Pitt are brilliant in the leads and the soundtrack by the Dust Brothers fits perfectly to the images.
Many reviewers thought the film was fascist. I think you can only call this ridiculous, since that assumes Fincher sympathizes with Tyler Durden's project mayhem. In fact, he invites us to form our own opinion, like Stanley Kubrick did in "A Clockwork Orange". "Fight Club" hands over the resposibility to the viewer. This may be uncomfortable to some, others (like myself) will embrace this.

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