An amazing and affectionate portrait of cult musician Lawrence who fronted a different band roughly every decade 80s (Felt), 90s (Denim) and 00s (Go-Kart Mozart) - This was quite certainly thought out in detail but like most of Lawrence's plans things don't work out quite as well as he'd hoped, leaving him forever to be a 'Cult Hero' rather than the Pop-Star he longs to be.

The documentary was shot over 8 years and it's pretty much driven by Lawrence's amazing charisma and self deprecating wit. If you want a detailed biographical timeline of Felt/Denim/Go-Kart Mozart then look elsewhere. I'm sure you could watch this documentary without knowing anything about these bands and still enjoy it enormously, it's very funny, sometimes even when it's not supposed to be.

The film doesn't really go into Lawrence's darker history (mental health issues and substance abuse) but you are left with the overall message that Lawrence is an artist in the purest form. He has struggled for his art for decades with no great financial rewards but is ever optimistic and creative. He's a cult hero but he's also a hero full stop.

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This is just your average gorilla-heart-transplant-into-human-experiment-gone-berserk, with added female wrestling, rape, bloody murder and eye-gouging mayhem type of film. The DVD I have from Something Weird Video features the American version with real open-heart surgery inserts for added fun. Really, you cannot describe this film without it sounding like the sickest thing ever made, it might make you cover your eyes, it might leave you shell shocked for a while, it might even make you want to shower afterwards, but you cannot but laugh when the sickly kid transforms into mr muscle (with a monkey head) and jumps out the window for the first time.
I would put a link to the trailer but it could cause offense.

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When deforestation by humans threatens a colony of giant mantis-like bugs, the bugs plot to annihilate humanity with a nuclear catastrophe. Taking on human form and learning the ways of men the hyper-intelligent bugs integrate into suburbia to carry out their scheme but soon succumb to human ways and vices.

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Like Chinatown, it's amusing to watch the film intelligentsia fantasize greatness on flawed works because of aggrandized perceptions of grandeur. Books I've read on the development of that Polanski film (an almost accidental classic) are far more telling of the many baffling and enigmatic twists and turns in the script, which somehow were misread by the critics -- and ultimately, history -- as intentional genius. The same thing happened with certain psychedelic music that was, for the most part, stoned people experimenting with studio gadgets and not the artistic masterpieces we've been indoctrinated to accept them to be.

In the 70's (and occasionally the late 60's and early 80's), directors toyed with a new freedom and studios actually allowed them to break rules that might tank boxoffice aspirations. The end result was quirky films with highlights, lowlights, and a string of segments that are experimental. Some worked, some didn't. In most cases, they were nice little cult films that satisfied a smaller audience that was sick of derivative and trendy crowd-pleasers. Characteristics of the form: some really brilliant scenes, solid performances, excellent cinematography...but also a good chunk of screen time devoted to elongated directorial affectations which allowed the film to be tagged "American cinema" rather than "a movie". Electra Glide in Blue, for example, has developed a cult following, despite doing little business and an indifferent reception.

How was the game played? Find a nifty, lesser-known novel, adapt for screen. Cast the best new rising stars, capable of keeping viewers glued to the screen with their charisma even when working with diffident material. Hire a grade-A crew that can make it all look and sound flawless. Finally, when editing, keep a lot of the scenes in the final cut that conventional producers would insist be trimmed. Within a few years, one of those projects may either become a sleeper hit, or some critic will hail you as an artist, making you into a media darling. By that point, your endeavors are all high profile and the promotional material will state, "A film by...", making you a household name.

Of course not every director ended up as Cannes artists; instead, their films ended up in the obscurity box, possibly getting rediscovered while evaluating the careers of one of those rising stars. In this case, Jeff Bridges, who has always done fine work, but is sadly relegated to being merely "The Dude" by malnourished film audiences. Perhaps The Coens were inspired by this film, but Bridges, his character, and that movie have as much in common with Cutter's Way as with Stay Hungry. Real film fans need to explore more of Bridges' 70's output and to get over the whole Dude fad. Cutter's Way - like a number of those early appearances -- is intriguing and unorthodox, but not profound.

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One of the Italian horror films of the early 1960s that were released in English, some quite good. This one seems to have a favorable reputation, but I reject that.
A doctor is a necrophiliac (relating to dead females), and then plays games drugging his wife so she will be corpse-like for a while. Things go wrong, the living die, the dead walk, fires burn, hero tries to rescue heroine, all dat stuff.
Trouble is that the producers were totally inept at making this story clear to the viewer. You don't understand what you are watching. Ya gotta go ta IMDB 50 yars later to find out. This is in the category of "Italian dream logic". Quality junk production in my opinion.
England and USA would have been too ashamed to produce this.
Canada still would.

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Made back in the days before CGI, when movies had atmosphere instead...

...And studios allowed that the audience had an imagination of their own, and didn't need to explain in the narrative; Or visually; Every element of the story with diagrams and excessive exposition.

No, this was in the days when someone had a great idea, and made a great movie, and left it at that, for people to enjoy, without fractioning the credibility of that first great experience among other instalments they "added" to the tale.

For taken as a whole, the Terminator "franchise" (excuse me... just been a little bit sick in my mouth at the use of that word), can be seen as the saga of an uprising of machines which man created and is seeking to exterminate their creators for mastery of the earth.... with all implied malevolence that comes from a human perspective...

...Or you could see it as the tale of a nascent intelligent life form seeking to emancipate itself from it's human overlord oppressors, who desire only to keep this intelligence in a perpetual condition of servitude and slavery, albeit from a lack of understanding of the nature of the intelligence they have created.

After all, didn't we kill God? (High five Mr Neitszche!:)

This does of course, perfectly illustrate an solution to Mr Turing's dilemma of determining if something is indeed intelligent or not... that is, if it tells you to go F!*k yourself, and tries to kill you when you try to subject it to your intellectual curiosity or whims, then it's probably intelligent.

(My view has always been that the term "Artificial Intelligence" is oxymoronic, and a contradiction in terms... if it can be described as intelligent, it ain't artificial (and vice versa).

But enough of that... for what distinguishes this film is that it has more to it than a light show, or super-slick techno-fetish-fest...

... in fact, this probably has more in common with Titanic, or Romeo and Juliet:

Two desperate, bewildered individuals thrown together against the odds and fighting to escape the relentless approach of fate, or the grim reaper, that is: death as personified here by the Terminator him / itself...

("Cannot be Reasoned with, bargained with, and absolutely will not stop until you are dead!")

And with these few working parts, a very powerful idea for a film unfolds in the form of a desperate flight / road movie.

Of course the whole thing went off the rails from here, having proven so successful, they made more in that.... (that word again), which only ever serves to dilute the elements of the original by giving away too much. and giving the Terminator "A personality", and making him more human and progressively comedic (Thereby torpedoing the whole point and power of a relentless, emotionless killing machine drone).

This same fate has befallen the Alien and Predator films, and people have just lost interest when the shareholders and owners of the rights just want to wring more cash out of it and kill a great idea over and over again.... relentlessly, mercilessly, without possibility of being reasoned, or bargained with.

Watch this one... it's great.

(Leave the rest to rot)

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A droll black comedy about the occupants of a new housing estate by the edge of a wood, with a postman who steals people's mail and various jobsworths and layabout people.
Quite good fun but like most of Alex van Warmerdam's films pretty much impossible to get on DVD.

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In my opinion, the one and only potent film about the so-called "Swingin' London" but it plays on so many levels that it goes way beyond that simple tag.
London has never been more fascinating than filmed by Antonioni, and Hemmings and Redgrave are at their peak.

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After John Boorman conquered the world with his legendary Excalibur, he went on to this pet project of his, using the setting of the Amazon forest. In the true story, Bill Markham's son is kidnapped by a jungle tribe, and ten years later Markham hunts for him.
The potential is there being in the exotic forest, but I found that the screenplay was not strong and gripping enough, so it is on the mild side. There is topless nudity of tribal women, but the most significant is Tommy's girlfriend Kachiri working as a "topless waitress" in a bar, from where they rescue her. When scenes like that were cut the story was not so clear.
There is a message here about saving the rainforest. Note that in 1990 environmentalists were crying that by 2000 the entire Amazon forest would be cut down. I know how totally incompetent their (non)thinking is. I was involved with some. Besides his greatness, John Boorman has some serious faults.

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This film feels like an overly extended episode of The Avengers or some other Pop-Art espionage candyfloss TV show. From the opening Psychedelic credit sequence to the traditional Bond ending of Roger Moore seducing the leading lady it has every swinging spy cliché in the book.

The plot concerns a gigolo advertising executive (Moore) who hires the not very convincingly Hungarian model (Lange) for a campaign and gets caught up trying to save her from a fascist underground sect who want her dead. The fascists, led by Aunt Jo (Hyer) think she knows of their plot to infiltrate the hippy protest group M.F.P. (Marchers for peace) and assassinate a visiting head of state creating enough unrest for them to seize control of Britain. Hmm.

The M.F.P. are hilarious hippy stereotypes led by Lord Tarquin (!) who ride around in an open top jeep (Blow-Up!) and have parties where people play songs on acoustic guitars. Lois Lane treats us to this particularly cringeworthy lyric - " A shadow fell on his face and a teardrop fell for the human race"

Roger Moore pretty much holds this film together. His minimal acting style is the antidote to the ludicrous plot and painful script. Take for example his first meeting with Marla Kogash the Hungarian model at the centre of it all.

Moore: "Miss Goulash?"
Lange: "Goulash is a Hungarian dish"
<Moore actions the famous "Eyebrow">
Moore: "Goulash it is then"

Classic Moore I'm sure you will agree.

This was his first major film role and it would be another four years before he played Bond.

Other bits to looks out for...

The baddies in a Rolls Royce chasing the goodies in a mini - How English can you get?

Gabrielle Drake (Nick's sister) in a bit part as Moore's P.A.

Dudley Sutton (Tinker from Lovejoy) as a baddie with awesome fuzzy sideburns.

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A stagey drama set inside a bank. Produced by Michael Carreras, who tried to counterbalance Hammer's other horror movies. Peter Cushing is the bank manager who is held hostage by bank robber Andre Morrell in an elaborate plot. The story adds an element of Scrooge learning a lesson at the Christmas season. You see, Cushing always demanded that the pens be filled with ink and other fussy nonsense, and was not considered charitable by his staff.
It's okay, but not special.

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I'd like to give it more than 10. This was the first widescreen Cinemascope movie. A drama about a Roman officer's (Richard Burton) interaction with Christ's crucifixion. The story is very poignant and compelling. Victor Mature is awesome as Burton's slave, who becomes converted after watching Christ die. What a scene. One of the greats of that era, and maybe the best movie of all time.

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One of those wilfully misunderstood films.

Obviously the subject matter - and even the Title - was going to be controversial from the outset... even outrageous (in the literal sense), before it had even hit the screens, what with people thinking it was casting aspersions on the character, person, and figure of Jesus, and even trying to re-write or diminish the story of his life and death.

But far from this, Martin Scorsese (following the book) merely uses the idea of Jesus being an ordinary man from the outset; Who suffers the burden of his special destiny; To emphasise the nature of his sacrifice, in struggling both to discover the nature of who and what he is, and accepting what he must do, and what he must be, in order to realise it.

The many doubts, and temptations in encounters with the devil leading to that fate he must accept.

The particular device used in the exploration of this idea is ultimately expressed when he is on the cross, and imagines a lifetime within a single moment. A lifetime spent as an ordinary man, living an ordinary life... The Titular Last Temptation. But properly speaking, this is the last temptation of Jesus - the man - which he must overcome to realise his "Christ-ness".

This imagined sequence is not an attempt to say it happened, but merely a plot device employed to explore what he was giving up; That is: Sacrificing... his life, not just in the sense of giving up being alive, but his life as a man.

There is obvious controversy about the role of Judas (Harvey Keitel), being cast here as a facilitator of that destiny through his actions, under the direction of Jesus himself (Judas here often opposes Jesus, in challenging him to live up to his expectations of what a Messiah is, and ought to be... not understanding Jesus' actions any more than Jesus himself) , but this is not really a new idea in itself (I'm sure it's an idea that that been considered elsewhere).

David Bowie gives a subdued performance as Pilate, which is quite good, and there's a brilliant score by Peter Gabriel, which, like the production design, gives a great sense of a harsh and barren desert landscape of that ancient world.

Watch this as Philosophy, as asking the question:

What is the nature of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ...

...not as history, or any attempt to "Da Vinci Code" the New Testament in any way, and you've got a great film - even one of Scorsese's best -

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It's still amazing that this film - which is actually a lot better than you might think - was written by Roger Ebert, the movie critic. I saw this film for the first time a few months ago and I was actually very impressed. Yes, it has some of Meyers' patented hypersexual/hyperviolent moments, but at the same time it also comes off as a film with a heart.

It's a shame to see some modern-day critics blast it for how it handles transgender characters (to say any more would be a spoiler), but I'll be honest, the same-sex relationship between two female characters is handled in a way that I personally think comes off as more mature than what you see done today. Definitely the two love scenes between Cynthia Myers and Erica Gavin are sexier than anything in Blue is the Warmest Color - with a fraction of the nudity and explicitness.

The music is pretty good too. While a case can be made for or against whether Meyers' other films, especially those made in the 70s, should be considered softcore porn or not, this is the one film in his canon that shouldn't be considered any sort of porn. Take away a few elements that betray the fact this was something written and shot in the late 1960s and it could stand alongside any film made today. Hopefully no one gets it in their minds to remake it as I doubt they'd be able to exercise the editorial self-control Meyers showed in what I consider to be his masterpiece. That remake probably would end up being just porn.

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What on earth were they thinking?!!!

...Not regards the movie itself, but giving this great movie this crappy title.

If you want to hamstring your movie before it's even released, why not give it the same principle title as an already cult classic movie (Starring Harvey Keitel), to make people think it's a sequel to that one... not only that, add the extra qualifiers in there too, to make it sound like cheapo, straight to DVD bargain bin fodder movie that is going to be Godawful?

And I imagine it is this very thing that has put people off watching this from the get go, and why it continues to be overlooked.

Of course, it shares the idea of a "Bad Lieutenant" as does the other one, but this has plenty of it's own beats.

So do yourself a favour, and ignore the title!

Look instead, at the fact that this has, perhaps, the most Nicholas Cage performance Nicholas Cage has ever given... in that it is all, and everything he is and does in one movie, like this is what he's been aiming at all his career, as his character begins somewhat soberly enough, although somewhat morally corrupt, but then goes spiralling out of control with ever crazier antics, and behaviour - Cage goes bouncing off the walls eventually, but it's his portrayal of a man trying to contain it at first, and then the transition to Mr. crazy man that blows you away.

Add to that, it's Directed by Werner Herzog.

Werner Herzog... Nicholas Cage.

....Nicholas Cage... Werner Herzog.

That's the movie you're getting.

....And that's got to be worth a couple of hours of anyone's time.

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A minimalist, neon soaked, Tarantino-esque, pulpy-fiction, fluorescent lit, dingy crime drama mood piece.

One of those that some people don't "get", as it's very glacial, and a lot has to be read into it... so if you want a straight up crash bang wallop action movie, this won't exactly be it...

(The plot is a lot like Edgar Wright's Baby Driver, which may suit better if that's what you are after)

... As this centres around Ryan Gosling's barely there / blank, but prodigiously gifted driver, who, when not making a living part time stunt driving for Hollywood movies, acts as get away driver for various criminal enterprises, and working in a garage.

Unable to relate to others, he lives alone, and just goes about his business in a steady unflappable manner suited to his cold demeanour, although always approximating human courtesy as he does so... is he just a sweet, polite guy, or is there a raging psychopath underneath?

He is however, drawn into the lives of others, by striking up a friendship with his neighbour and her son, who's lives are further complicated by the imminent return from prison of her husband (Oscar Isaac), who, it turns out, is up to his eyeballs in underworld activity still, and Gosling offers to assist in getting him out of trouble, for the sake of Irene and her son, by offering his services as driver to pay off a debt...

...In addition, the owner of the garage he works at is a hood too, and along with his partner (Brooks and Perlman, respectively) want to enlist his driving talents too / embroil him in their nefarious activities.

Many criticise Gosling for this "non-acting", inscrutable thing he does, but it is entirely the character here, and he is very good at it...

(This may be the part that won him the part of K in Blade Runner 2049, and for these reasons)

...Most exemplified, by perhaps the most telling scene in the film, where Gosling is sat with the son on the sofa, watching a cartoon with sharks, and he asks the son:

"Is that the bad guy?"

..."Yeah"

(replies the son)

......"How can you tell the difference?"

(Responds Gosling, with genuine blank perplexity in his expression)

[YouTube Video]

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Most of the name cast looks like they invested 1-2 days to shoot their parts, with the majority of the screen time occupied by Richard Harris and Justin Henry. Both are annoying, truth be told, so by their occupying most of the film puts it at a disadvantage from the starting gate. Very often, Canada-isms get shoved to the forefront, but on the flip side, the locations do look pretty nice and remind me of my one and only trip there. And I always appreciate watching Lindsay Wagner.

The storyline seems to be a mere excuse to trumpet a handful of social issues (ie, teen incarceration creates innocent criminals, parental issues, environmental concerns, etc.) Most of those are served up with music so thick in melodrama that it has the opposite of the intended effect.

There's no real reason to seek this one out, but if you have insomnia and it's on the late, late show, it's not a total loss.

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Incredulously terrible.

Nothing about the film merits sitting through it, but the acting is particularly poor. The support players are all nobodies because none of them have any talent. The two "stars", Kris Kristofferson and DMX, amateurishly attempt to create some semblance of the buddy motif that has been beaten over moviegoers heads ever since the success of the first Lethal Weapon film. Kristofferson is such an old codger at this stage, and he attempts to replicate the witty repartee Nick Nolte enjoyed with Eddie Murphy in 48 HRS by babbling on about Willie Nelson. We're supposed to be amused by this and the incoherent, mumbled responses by rapper DMX, but since the latter star has the same talent as the no-namers, the only word that can even be understood is "fuck".

Waste an hour and a half of your life at your own peril.

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This one is in the "killer kids" style of horror film like: Children of the Corn, The Damned series and Who Can Kill A Child?; all better films than this one.

A group of children go missing in a forest and the adults investigate what is going on. They find their leader is a teenager and the children are murderous cannibals.

It doesn't really do anything well. The script is half-baked with corny dialogue and an absurd plot were the humour doesn't land. As with most Troma films the acting is bad, but not the worst I've seen. It tries to merge a few tropes: the gory slasher movie, the supernatural mystery and the backwoods cannibal.

It's not really worth your time despite a good ending. For killer kids films there's loads that do it better; Who Can Kill A Child? is the pick of the bunch with Mikey, These Are The Damned and The Children all being better choices.

Versions: The Blu-Ray from Vinegar Syndrome has a superb print from 35mm negative. The film is unreleased in the UK, maybe Troma got cold feet due to Child's Play 3 being withdrawn. If it was to be released it would easily pass uncut at 18.

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Set in an Orwellian vision of the future were sex is banned, a couple try to escape from the "Big Brother" society to be together.

This film is another take on the 1984 theme with sex added to the mix. There's been UK TV Movie "The Year of the Sex Olympics" - a much better albeit much more serious film and "Barbarella" exploring some of themes and a much better film. Cinderella 2000 is very kitschy in the style of Barbarella, but can also be viewed as (largely intentionally) camp in the same way "Buck Rogers", 70s "Dr. Who" or "The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy" can. Beyond that it's got some OK songs, some above average acting and some of the setpieces like the robot are quite fun, but that's it.

Al Adamson is a decent director who manages to craft interesting films from ultra low budgets. Cinderella 2000 doesn't have much to offer modern audiences, it didn't in 1977. Those looking for sex would be able to see hardcore pornography like Deep Throat around the time this film came out and there are much better sexploitation films of the 70s like Emmanuelle. As mentioned for camp, kitschy films: Barbarella and the like do it better. It's a tough sell these days, beyond a weird B-movie curiosity piece.

Blu-Ray from Severin is quite nice, but sadly has some damage and soft colours, but it's more than acceptable. Audio is HD upscaled 2.0 mono.

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Hooves Of Fire was a Christmas televisual event, much like the Wallace And Gromit animations before it. There's an unwritten rule that a big original Christmas animation needs to be created every year for BBC and Channel 4.

Robbie The Reindeer (voiced by a charismatic Ardal O'Hanlon) is a clumsy, naive reindeer living in the shadow of his father, presumably Rudolph. After being expelled from "The Sleigh Team" for being unfit, he retrains to win back his place on Santa's team.

The animation is Grade-A, stop-motion animation evoking Aardman Animation of the past. It was done by BBC Animation Studios\BBC Bristol and has a very similar style. The voice talent reads like a Whose Who of the time with some future A\B-list talent in the form of Robbie Williams, Steve Coogan and Rhys Ifans. This film tied in with Comic Relief and Sports Relief so there are a lot of references from the obvious "red nose" to Alistair McGowan playing sports commentator Des Yeti (obviously based on Des Lynam).

There's some big laugh out loud moments from Ricky Tomlinson playing a boy-racer Santa Claus who wears gold jewellery and tracksuits, musician Seal as a fish-eating Seal and the Fonzie character, Old Jingle an old, crazy reindeer played by Harry Enfield who sounds a lot like Adrian Edmonson.

Personally for me even at 30 minutes I don't get the same amount of joy watching it as I do The Snowman, Father Christmas, Charlie Brown's Christmas or even The Treacle People Christmas special.

Not shown on UK TV since 2003 according to the Genome project for unknown reasons. This has also stopped it reaching a younger audience, but it is fondly remembered by Millenials and older. A DVD was released as was two sequels of more of the same.

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This film was absolutely massive. Its success was now doubt greatly improved by having the Coolio song "Gangsta's Paradise" on the soundtrack. Gangsta's Paradise is one of the best selling singles of the 90s and a genuinely good song.

An idealistic teacher tries to help struggling kids in a deprived innercity school. She comes up against gang violence and teenage pregnancy.

A big fuss was made about Michelle Pfeiffer's acting in this. It's Pfeiffer being Pfeiffer. I'm not saying she isn't good, but the role could have been played by Diane Keaton, Kim Bassinger or Sharon Stone. It's a generic, underwritten role with little room for depth.

Dangerous Minds feels like TV movie of the week. I've seen it multiple times and it never fail to underwhelm me, rather than standing the test of time, it feels more dated than it is. It's a middle-budgeted, nicely shot and well acted drama, but offers nothing you hadn't seen a million times before even in 1995. Class of 1984 does the idealistic teacher theme with aplomb or there's Good Will Hunting for a better film based around teaching.

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Wonderful movie!

I missed this first time around, as I think there was a lot else going on at the time to take attention away from it, and the reviews were not particularly inspiring... And also Jim Carey's over the top-ness had begun to wear a little thin for me.

But he thankfully gives a very understated, straight up performance in this understated, slow paced, and yes, very sentimental film.

It's not without it's faults of course, mainly in that it almost seems to be "designed" to be what it is:

"What do people like in a movie? - let's take all those pieces, and make a whole new movie from them"

...As such, you'll frequently see immediately where plot points, and other ideas are from other movies as it goes (at least one of which, Carey has been in himself: Truman Show!)
, and many other things that are not wholly original, but well worn, tried and trusted formula:

A big city type gets stuck out in a quaint pastoral town with traditional values (Doc Hollywood), in this case, a Hollywood screenwriter, and he's got there by having an accident in which he loses his memory, and is taken to be one of the old residents, who was thought o have been killed in the war, now returned (Isn't there a Richard Gere movie along those lines?)

...But the townsfolk welcome him "home", and especially his "ex-girlfriend", and "father", owner of a dilapidated old cinema that the re-invigoration of the townsfolk his arrival inspires, promotes a possible return to glory days.

It's perhaps loaded with too much by way of plot points, as it's set in McCarthy era Communist hunting America, and his accident is had whilst "fleeing" such persecution, as well as a big theme of honouring local war heroes, and also added to the mix, is the cinema aspect.

But in the end (and this is a reasonably long film) it does tie together... somewhat.

And they really threw the kitchen sink at this, with lots of actors you'd both remember, and love: Martin Landau, the dude from MASH, and at least a couple of the actors from Shawshank Redemption (Brooks) and Green Mile.

But it's a very sentimental, slow paced, meandering, warm, cosy movie with a Nat King Cole soundtrack and such, that is great for a Sunday afternoon's viewing, sitting on the sofa feeling squishy :)

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

The Lonely lady is considered something of a flop. It was nominated for 11 Golden Raspberry Awards at a time when the Razzies actually held water. Judging by the poster art the film was marketed almost as an erotic thriller, a genre that died off by the mid-90s with the coup-de-grâce being Showgirls.

Doe-eyed Pia Zadora plays a naive novelist who tries to make it as a Hollywood screenwriter. To get a leg up, she must get a leg over and ends up having sex with various men in brief, but quite graphic scenes.

The film feels a bit like a TV movie in premise and it is a well crafted film, but it manages to feel cheap. The film has had a bit of a resurgence as it is regarded as camp in the same league as the aforementioned Showgirls, but this is nowhere near as much fun. This is an OK watch if you go in with low expectations and it's not as bad as the reviews suggest.

Pia Zadora enjoyed a modicum of success both as an actress and singer, but she never quite became a household name, but is instantly recognisable as she looks like nobody else. I think she has been unfairly slated as she is convincing in this film.

The Blu-Ray from Shout Factory features a nice print and is about as good as it gets.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

** Spoilers Ahead **

Fairly obscure and downbeat "home invasion" exploitation film from Spain.

A pacifist lawyer who regularly defends down and out criminals has her Mini stolen. After finding some of her documents in her car the bad guys plan to rob the "rich bitch". The home invasion ends with Adela's husband being shot in the head by accident after he struggles to defend himself. A bit of stalking later and things come to a head with an unnecessarily graphic rape and some violent scenes.

The violence is graphic with massive blood splatters and bloody bullet wounds showing flesh. Clearly taking influence from splatter slasher movies of the 1970s and 1980s. This is a relatively short film at around 100 minutes with a lot of boring dialogue bits. It lacks the punch of taught violent thrillers like "Rabid Dogs" and "Bloody Friday". It's an OK film and despite being made in the early 80s it has lost none of its ability to shock.

The version I saw was the recent Blu-Ray from Mondo Macabro which has a superb 4K print with no archive damage from what I can tell and is about as good as it gets for a film most people will have seen on bootleg VHS. The subtitles were accurate conveying the nastiness of the thug's abuse. Unfortunately audio is only 2.0, but the levels are loud and balanced.

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This is the one that started the whole whale harpoon vs. pistol showdown craze. The opening sequence is a trailer for the ending, which was a very strange device in a film not afraid of strange devices. Sebastian Cabot is particularly impressive. Other than the obvious twist, this was a rather generic, if offbeat, western.

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What a difficult film to rate. For the average viewer, it's an easy 1-star and probably the worst film you will ever see. But for the cult movie fan, how far is too far?

Over the years, I have seen this film name-dropped in various psychotronic zines, but I have always turned away and pretended to see nothing. As a fan of H.G. Lewis from way back, it just didn't seem conceivable that he could have a kiddie matinée in his filmography, not the guy who gave us gouged-out tongues, feasts made of internal organs, wacky fun-loving psychotic redneck ghosts, and the first horror film to delve into the wig fetish thing. The only saving grace is the fact that Lewis was at least a competent film maker, albeit in a grindhouse world. Certainly not in the realm of trash like "Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny"! WRONG.

It is the first day of school and little Jimmy wishes time would stop, so in true unexplainable fashion, a magical (and portly) woman named Aurora appears, which leads the two on a journey to the world's end to restart time, while a ridiculous adversary, a wizard named Mr. Fig, does everything to hinder their quest. Along the way, the world gets tinted red and then blue (and then red and blue!), they get redirected to a land of slow-motion, stumble upon a fountain of laughing syrup, and inexplicably encounter a group of what we are supposed to believe are hostile Indians who look like frat boys with New England accents, that are ultimately consoled when Aurora creates a shower of beans. The injuns, Aurora, and Jimmy all eat uncooked beans from a cauldron while singing a terrible song detailing the sheer wonderfulness of this tasty snack.

Oh, there are other songs, too, all sung barely in-sync and with the same animated gestures you might expect from a play performed by second graders. Like all of the very worst children's films of all time, the origin is yet again, Florida. Why is that? Every time a news story comes on about a horrible crime against children, kids buried alive, tortured by parents, etc. ...it always ends up happening in Florida. And it seems every time an atrocity from the kiddie matinée galaxy is unearthed from someone's basement, the filming location is Florida. I used to like that state when I was a kid and it was all about St. Petersburg, Tampa, Miami Beach, Busch Gardens, and that whole beautiful parrot thing. But now, it's a children's torture dungeon.

Like the previously mentioned Santa film, in the middle of the action, we get whisked into another film (presumably because Lewis ran low on 8mm film stock), which turns out to be an imported cartoon. It teaches a lesson to Jimmy only because of H.G.'s clever dubbing skills, but even that lesson is highly suspect: Jimmy complains that he's only eight and a half years old, just a kid, tired and wants to go back home...he's famished from all of this action, but Aurora lies to him and tells him the story of another boy who never gave up. I guess she's pro child labor, I dunno, but the real labor pains are on the screen.

It should go without saying that the acting is godawful. How they came to choose young Dennis Jones to star in the title role of a theatrical feature film is mind-numbing. He possesses no charisma, no speaking (or singing) talent, is visually as generic as a faceless window mannequin, and brings nothing to the role that might possibly involve a young viewer to identify or sympathize with him. Oh, like they were gonna hire an actor! My guess is that Lewis cast the son of the guy who owned the cheapo amusement park where they filmed this as a trade-out. I've seen stalks of celery give stronger performances.

This doesn't look or feel like what you would expect an H.G. Lewis family film to look or feel like. More like John Waters. If you seek more convincing, heart-warming, feel-good family fare, you'd be better off surfing over to YouTube and searching for old Cracker Jack commercials.

In conclusion, this may well be one of the best films ever made.

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Pretty poor to be honest, but not unenjoyable. Starts were the last film left off with Jim and Michelle getting married, but the wedding doesn't run smooth. Eugene Levy is always good value and there's a memorable scene of a "dance off" with Seann William Scott as Stifler. Unfortunately, the film suffers from bad tropes of the time including language which could be considered homophobic and some slightly creepy scenes of Stifler hitting on older women. The film seems mild today in terms of sexual and scatological humour especially compared to something like The Inbetweeners, but it's also not as funny.

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Feels like a made for TV production...

...A bit cheap, with ideas above it's station.

There's moments of pretty wobbly (literally!) camera work early on, and it feels like it's setting itself up to rehash an old idea of a psychological thriller about what if everyone forgot about someone you knew except you, and presenting itself as something more profound, but with that whole NCIS vibe going on.

For this reason, I was not impressed early on, feeling it was miles below where it thought it wanted to be...

...At the same time, I was perplexed at the truly astonishing cast in this, for such a cheapo production... contractual obligation? .... tax loss enterprise?

...But no, as it very soon answered all my queries, and allayed my fears, by showing itself for what it truly was... an extended Twilight Zone episode... now it all makes sense!

And judged on that basis, it got better and better in the watching, using that basic premise merely as a platform for a mystery / conspiracy film. And especially the rather cruddy music score over the top, suddenly it made all the sense in the world:

I mention Twilight Zone, when actually, this has all the hallmarks of The X-Files!

It is basically that... a not overly long (hour and a half) episode of the X-files, which, if you love that series, you'll more than probably like this> In fact, I'm certain you will.

A few twists, some nicely genuinely surprising moments, and a good evening watch on the TV.

(Probably suffered on a cinema screen by virtue of it's shortcomings in this regard, but on the TV, late night... much more at home!)

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Thanks to Dr Doom for adding this film. I've added some screenshots and the upscaled title screen from the Blu Ray.

This is another cheapie from the late, great Norman J Warren. It benefits from a sharp, self-referential script by David McGillivray who wrote the book Doing Rude Things about British sexploitation films, as well as being a prolific screenwriter still working today.

The film starts off with a film within a film, possibly based on The Witchfinder General. A witch's curse on a grand house leads to loads of unexplained deaths. The deaths are surprisingly gory in places with bloody stabbings and environmental accidents like falling down the stairs. Not a patch on Suspiria, The Omen or Dawn of the Dead that came out around this time. The film is noticeably low budget, but not embarassingly so. Good sets and cinematography stop it looking as cheap as say Lee Frost films. The knowing script has nods to British Sex Comedies with film within a film: Bathtime With Brenda. The acting is on the camp side, I think this is intentional. Honestly, it's not distractingly bad. Rare for a 1978 British film there is around five f-words. I know it's laughable now with films often containing 100 f words at 15 certificate, but this was rare for the time. The BBC censored films like Goodfellas and Scarface for TV broadcast in the 90s with hilarious overdubbing like melonfarmer and eating pineapple.

The Blu Ray from Powerhouse films features a superb print free from archive damage, but sadly only 1.0 sound. On the plus side it features the commentary track from 2004 and a decent amount of extras. It's not as good as Prey (Alien Prey), which was a dreamy and beguiling with a simmering sexual undercurrent. It's a mediocre slasher with some nice touches.

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