Monday, June 24, 2013

Junesploitation Day 24: Rock 'n Roll!

You can't keep a good band down!

We here at Junesploitation have sold our souls to rock 'n roll.

15 comments:

  1. Help! (1965)

    The famous Ringo from the famous Beatles gets a ring famously stuck on his finger and is then pursued by an "Eastern" cult who want to sacrifice him to their god, Kaili.

    Man, I love this movie. Last time I saw it was about 15 years ago, and it was an absolute joy to revisit it. The movie is really only a series of about 10 or so 5-10 minute segments where the cult try to get the ring and the Beatles evade them with no variation to the formula as the movie progresses. But their no holds barred approach to the humour and their forced dry wit performance really works for me. It starts to tire around the 1 hour mark, with Buckingham palace onwards really feeling the "rinse and repeat" mode, but in my opinion the rapid fire jokes carry it, while Im sure my affection for it carries my further than most.

    RIP Elias Howe

    Kailisploitation

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  2. Rock N Roll High School (1979)

    Man this was a fun time, stupid Principal and her hating of the awesomeness of the Ramones. This one has crazy characters, great scenes of anarchy, and giant mutated mice... who ROCK! The random silliness of this movie just delighted me the whole way through this classic. Rock N Roll High feels like the response for people who hated Grease (that would be me.) Haven't had this much fun during Junesploitation since Death Wish III. Ramonespolitation!

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  3. Almost Famous (2000)

    Golden Godsploitation! I think this is Cameron Crowe's best movie, probably because only he could have made it. It's a semi-true story based on Crowe's own experiences touring across the country as a writer for Rolling Stone. I just love the atmosphere of this film, how it meanders through the days when Zeppelin and the Who ruled the world. Parts of it can come through as too cutesy or even preachy, but at least I believe that these characters love the time and the music (I'm looking at you, Rock of Ages). It's well-acted and sincere, funny and heartbreaking. It rocks!

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  4. Kiss Meets The Phantom In the Park aka Attack of the Phantoms (1978)

    An (evil) inventor who works at California's Magic Mountain is conducting experiments on turning people into audio animatronic robots. Only one thing can stop them: the rock band KISS. This TV movie was produced by Hanna Barbera, which explains a lot, because it feels like a live action episode of Scooby-Doo. Each member of KISS has a talisman that grants him super powers, such as fire breath or lightning, so that means that there are lots of shots of Gene Simmons making funny faces while fire shoots across the screen. Depending on how you feel about KISS, this is either the greatest thing or the worst. I personally love it so much that I want to shout it, shout it, shout it loud. KISS hated this movie for a long time because it apparently didn't turn out the way they expected (but...Hanna Barbera), but in recent years they've softened on it as it has developed a cult following. You can find this in its entirety on the KISSOLOGY Volume 2 DVD set. Rock all roll all night, party every day!

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  5. THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984) on Amazon Prime for the first time.

    Having just watched this a few minutes ago I don't have much to say other than what I have just seen/heard is simply perfect. Great idea, great execution of that idea (from which catch-phrases like 'goes up to 11' to "The Office" and its clones continue to blossom), great music (good-enough to stand on its own) and a 100% committed performance by creative talent both in front of the camera and in-between takes. I'm sure I'll be seeing Harry Shearer's 'stache in my dreams for days to come. Though even the smallest role is crammed with talent (Crystal, Shaffer, Kirby, Huston, etc.) this is clearly "The Christopher Guest and Michael McKean Show" as both guys are just magnetic and so much into character I forgot I was watching a spoof mockumentary several times, until a well-timed line ('Denholm Elliott does T.S. Eliot' :D) brought me back to reality with a big laugh. And yep, the compromised cover of Tap's album they're promoting on the tour? BLACKSPLOITATION!

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  6. Rock N Roll High School (1979)

    "Do your parents know you're Ramones?"
    So great! Nothing says punk quite like a PG rated anarchic musical comedy, and this was a blast from start to finish. Unfortunately the final scene is difficult to appreciate in today's climate (which is beyond a shame because it's the perfect note to end this particular movie on) but the movie is wall-to-wall fun. Paul Bartel steals every scene he's in, and it made me want to see if Eating Raoul and Rocket To Russia sync up Wizard Of Oz/Dark Side Of The Moon style. Also, Patrick was totally on the money about the I Want You Around scene, it's fantastic.

    Please excuse JP from finishing this review. His goldfish died.

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  7. THE APPLE. Wait… is this a real movie, or did I dream it? It’s all like something out of a highly upsetting dream. In the far-distant future of 1994, the world is apparently run by the music industry, and a young woman sells her soul to the devil (literally, mind you) to become a pop diva. Only in doing so, she turns her back on the nice guy who really loves her. Or something. The story doesn’t matter, as it’s all an excuse for a bunch of absolutely insane musical numbers. It’s like this movie is saying to the entire 1970s, “You think that’s camp? I’ll show you camp.” (Glittersploitation!) Too-tight outfits covered with sequins, gigantic shoulder pads, silver facial decals, metal-studded lingerie, shiny gold underpants… are we sure I didn’t just dream this?

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  8. Vicious Lips (1986)

    Early Albert Pyun(sploitation) scif-fi/comedy/musical about a girl group that gets a gig on another planet but is stranded en route. And there's a mutant loose on board their ship. It's so busy being so many things that it never manages to be any one thing successfully, but I didn't mind. The songs are very '80s but catchy and the whole movie has a weird dreamy feel to it. Parts of it feel a lot like a Gregg Araki movie, which I would normally hate. That this was produced under a major studio and got any kind of release makes me miss the '80s.

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  9. Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)

    I'll watch anything with PJ Soles in it, and she rules the school as huge Ramones fan Riff Randall. Movie has a charming ramshackle quality to it, and you have to respect any film that has the balls to cast Clint Howard as a smooth operator. The one sour note is the poor Freshman - apparently one thing that jocks and punks can agree on is that nerdy Freshmen are worthy of being treated like crap.

    The days where you could get away with an ending like that are long gone, sadly.

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  10. Velvet Goldmine (1998)

    I watched this several years ago, and I was going to watch something I hadn't seen before. But then I was reminded about this movie and I knew I couldn't sit through anything else.

    I liked the movie when I first saw it. This time I loved it. I loved everything about it; the way it looks and how the story is told are wonderful. I can't believe it took me 5 years to watch this again.

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  11. Streets of Fire (1984)

    Where has this movie been all my life? Epic rock ballads (Meatloafsploitation!), sweet rides, Willem Dafoe at his most villainous, Private Hudson, cars that explode when you look at them the wrong way - loads of fun. I think I was anticipating Patrick's "exploding heart moment" too much to actually experience it, but maybe next time!

    NOTE TO EVERYONE: This will no longer be available on Netflix as of July 1 so if you want to catch one of Patrick's favourite movies on the cheap, ya better do it fast! It's worth it!

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  12. For the first time this month, I'm exercising the "Close Enough" clause ...

    Pitch Perfect (2012)

    It's my wife's birthday, so she got to pick the movie. Maybe a mistake? This movie is a mess. I have no idea why it was so popular at the end of last year. It didn't even know what it wanted to be -- a genuine tribute to a cappella music, a goof on the teen/music genre, a David Wain-esque comedy ... what? So embarrassing at moments that you need to turn away. And I'm convinced that Dane Cook built a time machine in an attempt to reinvent his career as Skylar Astin.

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    Replies
    1. That's ok Doug at least you didn't use the movie "The Rock" for the Close Enough clause. As for your review I haven't seen Pitch Perfect but your thoughts on it echo what the movie clips looked like to me, thanks for taking the bullet.

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