American Pimp (2000) Review

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(More customer reviews)If this film can be summed up into one word, it's "Edutainment". Believe it or not, this film is not only immensely entertaining, but it is educational as well. All our lives we've seen images of pimps in TV shows and movies, dressed up in their purple snakeskin outfits and acting like clowns - but "American Pimp" illustrates what real-life pimps are really like.
Ok, so some of the pimps ARE a bunch of guys dressed up in purple outfits acting like clowns, but this documentary shows the side of "pimpin'" that you've never seen. You'll learn about "the game" and how pimps get "knocked" for not keeping tight reins on their "hoes." You'll also see how their girls work day and night making hundreds, even thousands of dollars, and then handing it all over to their pimps without even getting the slightest share in profits.
Why do the girls do this? Why to pimps do what they do? WHAT exactly are pimps? Well watch "American Pimp" and you'll be educated and entertained like never before on the age-old profession of "pimpin".
This documentary ranks up there with "When They Were Kings!" It's a MUST HAVE for any DVD collection!

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Urban auteur filmmakers, the Hughes Brothers (Menace II Society, Dead Presidents) hitthe mean streets with an "incredibly entertaining and charismatic" (Shout) expose on real-life pimps. A "snappy, stylish documentary" (The New York Post) containing "blunt, raw power and stylistic energy" (The Hollywood Reporter), American Pimp is "a primer on pimp craftand culture" (Shout) that takes you into the shadowy world of prostitution, "putting on the screen everything you ever wanted to know about pimps" (Nuart).Cutting straight to the heart of the world's oldest profession, this intimate portrait of infamous "mack-daddies" like Filmore Slim, C-Note, Gorgeous Dre and Rosebudd is eye-opening and shocking. From the dirty streets of New York, L.A. and San Francisco to the "Player's Ball" in Milwaukee, you'll walk the boulevard ofbroken dreams and hear every heart-wrenching story and hilarious anecdote. It's an exclusive ride you've never experiencedand won't soon forget.

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Pretty Baby (1978) Review

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(More customer reviews)If they gave Academy Awards for small moments, this film would deserve one for the scene in which Violet is being auctioned off, and the camera closes in on the eyes of the Black piano player, full of silent moral judgment. The print is not so lovely, with more glitches and defects than I've seen in years. Even worse, Paramount has chosen to censor the film, by reframing the scene where Violet is tossed out of Belloc's apartment. It's one thing to be locked out of your house, and quite another to be locked out naked. The impact (and irony and pathos) of the scene is lost along with the nudity. What's ridiculous, though, is that uncensored full-frame prints have been showing on DBS/cable for years. Why censor it now? Last one out of the barn lock the door? So we have a choice between uncensored pan & scan or cropped widescreen. After years of overpriced, underfeatured discs (how many times have they released 'better' versions of Star Trek films?), it looks like Paramount has found yet another way to reveal its failure to understand DVDs. A pity this film wasn't released by MGM.

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A photographer becomes obsessed with a child prostitute in turn-of-the-century New Orleans.Genre: Feature Film-DramaRating: RRelease Date: 18-NOV-2003Media Type: DVD

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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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Less Than Zero (1987) Review

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(More customer reviews)Though most reviewers commented on their disppointment that this movie missed the mark 1000% when it came to adapting the novel by Ellis to the big screen, I believe if you view this film as a message movie for the ages where drugs and excess are concerned, then you will be quite impressed. If not for Robert Downey Jr. and James Spaders' performances, however, the other actors could not have carried the message with such brutal force. Julian is a wreck of an addict, distraught over family issues, wild eyed with crazy drug induced moods, not really making it in school, and his circle of friends, male and female, are his only salvation. At the same time, they are his downfall, for Julian slides effortlessly into the glamorous world of sex, clubs and drugs with his friends right by his side. This picture came out in the eighties, when JUST SAY NO was on everyone's lips, and the dangers of "recreational" drug use were not exposed as vividly. Watching Julian's descent into hell feels like a punch in your chest, and the ending, though some may have seen it coming, shook me up considerably, having known a person with a similar fate back in my '80's high school days.Of course this film is not classic filmmaking or even original storytelling, but I think showing it to impressionable teens at an early age might not be a bad idea. And how accurately did art mirror life when, in the 1990's, Downey Jr. nearly killed himself getting high on everything under the sun.This film was not a far stretch for him.

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Returning home from college for Christmas vacation, Clay (Andrew McCarthy) is eager to resume his long-time romantic relationship with Blair (Jami Gertz) and his old friendship with the irresponsible Julian (Robert Downey, Jr.). But he finds the two have started a relationship of their own and developed a fondness for clubs, wild parties and endless amounts of cocaine. Clay's determination and love for Blair enables him to win her back, but Julian is a different story. Increasingly hopeless, addicted and deeply in debt to his dealer (James Spader), he puts Clay and Blair through the ultimate test of friendship, loyalty and love.

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Welcome to the Rileys (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)WELCOME TO THE RILEYS is a little sign on the garage doors of Doug and Lois Riley in Indianapolis, Indiana. It also serves as the title of this fine little film written by Ken Hixon and directed by Jake Scott that examines how the loss of a 15-year-old daughter Emily in an automobile accident has resulted in the crumbling of the parent's marriage and relationship. Doug (James Gandolfini) has an affair with younger waitress Vivian (Eisa Davis) while Lois (Melissa Leo) becomes so isolated in her agoraphobic state and psychotropic mediations that she is no longer available to Doug. A crisis occurs when Vivian dies in cardiac arrest and in Doug's honest grief he visits her grave only to find that Lois has unilaterally purchased a headstone with Doug's and Lois' names on it beside the grave of their departed Emily, a fact that enrages Doug.
Doug goes to New Orleans on a convention and there encounters stripper/prostitute Mallory (Kristen Stewart), a 16 year old unkempt, foul mouthed runaway from Florida: Mallory sees the kind Doug as a john but Doug's interest is in her plight, not her business offerings. Doug obviously responds to Mallory as though she were his lost daughter, moving into her filthy apartment, trying to improve her view of life. Doug phones Lois that he is going to stay in New Orleans a while, a message that gives Lois the courage to actually leave her home and drive to New Orleans: during Lois' somewhat comedic trip she stops for food and a strange man comes on to her - something that awakens her self esteem before she reaches New Orleans. Once Lois arrives at her destination she is proud of overcoming her agoraphobia and Doug is happy to see the healing Lois. Together they stay with Mallory, facing the fact that for both of them Mallory represents the chance to restore their love for the daughter they've lost. How the three cope is the remaining of the film.
The three leads offer polished performances - some of the finest work we have seen from both Gandolfini and Leo who together make this film better than the sum of its parts. Kristen Stewart immerses herself in Mallory and though she still remains a rather monochromatic actress, this role offers her the ability to stretch her acting chops: she is convincing as the victim of the dregs of society and makes us care about a character who seems to have few redeeming qualities. This trio of actors plays well as a small ensemble and the result is a film that has been far too overlooked by the general public. Recommended. Grady Harp, February 11

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Studio: Sony Pictures Home EntRelease Date: 02/01/2011Run time: 110 minutesRating: R

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