Sunday, June 7, 2015

Junesploitation Day 7: Drugs!

A big thrill in a little pill!

105 comments:

  1. COCAINE: ONE MAN'S SEDUCTION (1983) on Amazon Prime.

    After hitting paydirt during last year's Junesplitation Serial Killers! day, I'm diving back into the made-for-TV movie well. I have a soft spot for network TV movies which are essentially glorified After School Specials for grown-ups, and this anti-drug movie is a primo example of the best and worst attributes of the genre. It stars Dennis Weaver as a San Diego real state salesman who, in order to keep up with the rich upscale yuppie clients he's chasing after (and the younger sharks who are about to make him irrelevant at the main office), starts doing cocaine hits so he can have the energy to work harder and relate better to these people. That's right, McCloud snorts toot! This being early 80's network TV, though, it takes other characters pushing the smack on Dennis (like the chick who played Claudia Carrington on "Dynasty") and extraneous circumstances the audience can relate to (a college fund for his teenage son to go to Stanford U.) to make it absolutely clear Weaver is a good guy in over his head. Also, as with Peter Parker in "Spider-Man 3," Weaver is such a square Goody Two-Shoes that at his flying high moments all he does is taint his white hair black and buy a bigger, boxier Chrysler than the one he already had and make wife Karen Grassle (Caroline Ingalls from "Little House on the Prairie") smile from ear to ear in the morning... because they fuck a lot more, you see, but on network TV that can't be shown or said so it's just implied.

    Did I mention that 23 year-old James 'Age of Ultron' Spader plays Weaver's high school senior kid, who's constantly showing beefcake and knows how to put his old man in his place? Never mind looking too old for HS, Spader looks like Junior 'Red' Reddington practicing his future deceptiveness by living right under McCloud's congested-and-bloody nose. Did I also not mention that Jeffrey Tambor plays Weaver's neighbor and best friend having a midlife crisis of his own? It's basically the same character Tambor played in "... And Justice for All" but as a doctor, because suburbia! You can practically feel the people making this movie collectively circle jerking each other slightly off camera saying to themselves 'We're showing the dark side of Reagan's America! Fuck Republicans, where's our Emmy?' "Cocaine: One Man's Seduction" is technically not a bad movie (everyone's performances, particularly Weaver and Spader, are fine), but the phoniness of the made-up situation the writers and producers dream up to show a middle-class white man's descent into addiction (because showing lower-class black or minorities going through the same painful process would have to wait until HBO and "The Wire" got around to it 20 years later) feels exploitative of a problem they didn't bother exploring further than 'It's bad, don't do it.'

    PERSONAL ASIDE. Up until early this year I worked as a Spanish transcriber/closed captioning technician, which means I typed and timed the dialogue of movies and/or TV shows for airing on either Spanish cable channels or the internet. Every once in a while, when there wasn't enough Spanish work to go around, they'd let me do some English shows. "Cocaine: A Man's Seduction" is one of them. If you turn on the CC on the Netflix version of this movie (it's streaming there as well as Amazon Prime) I closed caption it. One of the few times I can point to something readily accessible to almost everyone and I can say 'I did that.' :-)

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    1. For reference, do you see my comment below? It is too long. Kyle Hall knows the score. We should all be more like Kyle! Get on board.

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    2. Everyone needs to be more like Kyle.

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    3. Yeah, it's already been brought up so let's try to reign it in. Thanks.

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  2. Super Fly (1972)

    This is my favourite blaxploitation movie. I love the style, the energy, and how Ron O'Neal and Curtis Mayfield give it 100% pretty much making the movie. From O'Neal's balls out crazy running effort in the opening chase scene to his ultra smooth smack talk in the final scene, he is clearly not holding back in the best way possible (i.e. a little too much but its tonally on mark). Curtis Mayfield made the best soundtrack of all time with this one.

    One last million dollar cocaine score then he's out of the game.
    Its less socially charged than other Blax movies of those early years and it pretty much lets Priest off scot free with no repercussions or criticism for the impact of his dealing, which Im fine with. The social commentary can be heard in Mayfield's soundtrack where the theme for the whole movie is "Freddy's Dead', with Freddy being a side character who dies from getting in over his head in the drug game.

    CanYouDigItsploitation!

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    1. O'Neal's no handed jump over that fence during the foot chase is damn impressive.

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  3. Layer Cake (2004)
    "When I was a boy, the world was a far simpler place. It was all just cops and robbers."
    "Drugs changed everything."

    Matthew Vaughn's first directorial effort shifted gears from the more light hearted Guy Ritchie films (which he produced) to present this story of a white collar drug dealer in way over his head (Daniel Craig, pre-James Bond).

    Great direction, amazing cast, excellent musical choices.

    If you haven't seen this film, I highly recommend you do.

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    1. LAYER CAKE is a great movie with an intense atmosphere!!!
      My "must-revisit"!!!!!

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    2. I'm very curious to see the upcoming sequel.

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  4. Pusher 2: With Blood on My Hands (2004, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn) (First Time Viewing): Ex-Con Tonnie is released from jail and tries to get in the good graces of his crime-lord dad. Unfortunately he’s a junkie and cannot stop doing extreme amounts of drugs, while his life spirals completely out of control. This is an intense, stylish, and heartbreaking crime movie, with a thrilling Mads Mikkelson performance at the center. You swing from pitying him to fearing him but he always dominates the screen. Highly Recommended.

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    1. Interesting, as I haven't seen the first, but now want to see this!

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  5. Wild Beasts (1984) Dir. Franco Prosperi; 2nd Viewing

    PCP is a hell of a drug. Just ask the animals at the Hamburg Zoo.

    PCP gets into the Zoo's water supply, the animals escape and go on a rampage through the city. My buddy turned me onto this years ago and I finally tracked down a R2 DVD last year so I had to revisit it. It's insane. The greatest scenes are of a cheetah chasing after a VW Beetle down a major highway. It's an F-ing real cheetah chasing a Beetle - no CGI here, folks. An elephant crushes a car and a woman's head, a polar bear attacks a bunch of kids in a school, some kids drank the water with the PCP too and turn crazy, rats eat up a couple having sex, tigers and lions are jacking people up. I'm telling you, this film is something to behold.

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  6. A Field in England (2013 dir. Ben Wheatley)

    A motley crew of deserters journey away from a battlefield. However, one of the group is sneaking hallucinogens into the food and they end up meeting a mysterious man. Anyone familiar with Wheatley's past films knows that he doesn't believe in straight narratives and "Field" goes all in with this. It is beautifully filmed and acted, but can feel ponderous and confusing. This reminds me a lot of "Only God Forgives" in that it will challenge the viewer the entire way and doesn't really wrap things up as many viewers would like. Your mileage may vary. Recommend.

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  7. The Mule (2014)

    Angus Sampson is a quiet, unassuming guy roped into smuggling drugs into Australia by ne'er-do-well friend Leigh Whannell. He does so by swallowing a dozen condoms full of heroin, but he panics at the airport and is detained by police (including the always excellent Hugo Weaving) who hold him for an alarmingly long time waiting for the evidence to, er...present itself.

    If you had told me a year ago that I'd greatly enjoy a feature-length film about not pooping I'd have checked the dosages on all your medications, but this was great. It was tense, funny, and surprisingly engaging. I hate to add to the overuse of this particular cliche, but it truly is the Citizen Kane of trying-not-to-poop movies.

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  8. Pulp Fiction (1994)

    I want everyone to know that I kept this DVD up my ass for 7 years just so I could take it out for Junesploitation. Somehow it still played and the first thing I noticed was that I found Uma Thurman the most attractive after she OD'd. Yeah, it's great. We all think it's great. Well, let's not start suckin each other's dicks quite yet. So pretty please, with cherry on top, watch the fuckin movie.

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  9. Blood Freak (1972, dir. Steve Hawkes & Brad Grinter)

    What??? Herschell is a weird, beefcakey Stuart Whitman lookalike with large, distracting burn scars on his arms. He falls in with two sisters, one a hippie, one a Christian conservative. The hippie gets him hooked on tainted pot. He gets a job at a turkey farm, and is recruited to eat an entire turkey as part of an experiment. (???) It's also tainted, and turns him into a turkey-headed monster who needs to drink the blood of drug addicts to survive. He's decapitated by drug dealers, and the movie cuts to real, disturbing footage of a turkey being killed. Then the dealers eat him! (By "him" I mean a cooked turkey with the turkey mask sitting next to it.) In the end it was all a dream, and he kicks the habit by accepting Jesus. This movie was pretty hard to stay focused on. Trailer.

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    1. Shattered... If Your Kid's on Drugs (1986, dir. Burr Smidt)

      Megan Follows (Anne of Green Gables herself!) and her boyfriend are buying pot, coke, luudes, and crack from Dermot Mulroney. Impressively, their folks give up drinking, smoking, and Valium as a show of support. Judd Nelson and Burt Reynolds watch from the distance, omniscient and judgmental. Judd says "Looks like the American dream!" Burt morosely replies "More like the American nightmare." imdb's synopsis reads: "In a world where shatter is the only wax his son will smoke. A dad must ask himself if the gooey dabs he has will ever be enough for the two of them." Huh?

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    2. Wha..wha...what?! Haha! That's brilliant.

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    3. A Nightmare on Drug Street (1989, dir. Traci Wald Donat)

      Three kids are sitting in a black void. One says to the camera "Hi! I'm dead!" The ghosts then narrate each others' tales of drug abuse and death. Felipe bites it because he drove while stoned. Jill gets hooked on coke given to her by a cute boy at a party. Her ghost says "Never trust a 14 year old who wears cologne." 10 year old Eddie is given crack by a classmate: "It turns the inside of your head into a video game!" He takes two tokes and drops dead from a heart attack! Back in purgatory, he says "Just because you didn't get caught doesn't mean you got away with it."

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    4. Drug Free Kids: A Parents' Guide (1986, no credited director)

      The cast for this is ridiculous: Ken Howard, Ned Beatty, Elliot Gould, Richard Masur, Melissa Gilbert, Marla Gibbs, Paul Winfield, Jane Alexander, Susan Sullivan, and Wil Wheaton, among others, but it's all pretty dry. The cast roleplays different drug-related situations parents might find themselves in, with the parents usually screwing it up; but then Ken Howard swoops in to correct the dummies and they get it right the second time. Winfield tells his chubby Madonna-fixated daughter that she's a dumb sheep and a lemming. Beatty calls his kid a pantywaist because he can't hold his liquor. Gilbert has a scene where she's done up like a punk. The producers of this seem pretty convinced that heavy metal music deserves blame for getting teens into drugs, because it comes up a few times and Howard tells parents to set parameters with their kids for what constitutes "appropriate" lyrics to listen to. The general upshot was to give your kids better tools to manage typical day-to-day stress and frustration with than drugs and alcohol. Good luck!

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    5. Straight Up (1988, dir. Cordelia Stone)

      Whoooooaaa. This is my find of the day. Lou Gossett Jr. in a tie-dyed bathrobe is Cosmo, who takes Tommy Westphall on his "Fate Elevator" to fantasy locales where the boy has to face off against anthropomorphized versions of different drugs. He also sings, and gives Tommy a talking headband. In the "Dungeon of Ignorance", Booze (a hobo) comes after him with a chainsaw and tries to push him into a snake-filled pit. A green lady named Pot shows up, and her and Booze sing "Gimme That Headband!" He also runs into the white-faced Cocaine, and Heroin, who looks like Kai from Lexx. In "The Land of Illusion," he gets magic They Live-style sunglasses that show him that the cool-looking people in cigarette and alcohol ads are actually sick and zombie-like. In "Drug City" he is arrested and put on trial for not having any drugs. The whole thing feels like an even more bizarre, narcotics-themed Zoobilee Zoo. I think I'm all drugged out for today.

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    6. Sounds like you need some of the good stuff too after subjecting yourself to FIVE Junesploitation movies in one day! That's gotta be a record. :-)

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  10. The Trip (1967)

    Wow, was this movie boring! Maybe it's because I wasn't alive during the 60's, and thus don't have much affection for psychedelic movies, but I failed to find anything to like about this. Guided by a good friend, Peter Fonda takes his first acid trip after his divorce. That's about all that makes any sense in this. Maybe I'm just not artistic enough to "get" the visual randomness that are Fonda's visions, but after a short while I couldn't even muster the interest to try. Even the actors in it seem bored. This one's a drag.

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  11. True Romance (1993)
    A geek and a call girl fall in love and end up with a suitcase full of coke; mayhem ensues.
    I'm using Junesploitation to fill in some gaps of movies I just haven't gotten around to yet, and after seeing this I'm embarrassed it took me so long. The cast. My God, the cast in this film. Really, it all comes down to some of Patricia Arquette's last lines in the film: "You're so cool. You're so cool. You're so cool."

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    1. Best dialogue is the Hopper/Walken conversation about sicilians actually being blacks. Unforgettable.

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  12. In Hot Pursuit aka The Polk County Pot Plane
    1977 Jim West

    This '70's drive in classic tells the true tale of southern drug runners clearing the top of a mountain and landing a pot and cocaine filled plane on it and then driving the goods away in Uhauls.

    The directors main qualification seems to be a pilots license and access to a shoestring budget. I have a feeling the photographer/camera operator's decided to bring it because the chase/airplane scenes have awesome energy. A sequence where an angry dog is stealthily handcuffed to an antagonist to keep him occupied is inspired and I suspect has been reused (though I can't put my finger on it. Watch this rip roaring good time on The Action Movie Channel on YouTube. Highly recommended, but only for '70's cheese/exploitation lovers.

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    1. Quentin showed this at the Drafthouse. I've been wanting to see this one.

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    2. My bad, Charles. I see you directed us to the right place at the end of your write up! Thanks!

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    3. No prob Chaybee. I missed the offending comment anyway. Now you've piqued my interest...

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    4. Nah, nothing offensive, man. I posted a link of where to watch the film without noticing you directed us where to go at the end of your review.

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  13. The Big Boss (1971) on Netflix

    Another movie that has been sitting in my queue longer than necessary.

    Bruce Lee's first feature, working at an ice factory that is really a front for a dope smuggling ring. Starts out a bit slow, but eventually finds its speed. Worth a watch for the ending alone.

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  14. Recoil (1998) Dir. Art Camacho

    Remember how amazing that shootout in the street was from Michael Mann's "Heat"? Crank that up 1000 times, blow a bunch of people and cop cars up in the process, make it 12 minutes long and BEGIN your fucking movie with it - that is the spectacle of action that is, Recoil. Oh, and While your at it, let the shootout lead immediately into an amazing car chase, flip and explode those cars and throw in a motorbike for good measure. I'm not kidding you - I had to pause the movie 20 minutes in out of exhaustion.

    Problem with starting this strong is that when you have to give some story (and after the beginning no one could give a shit about the story cause their brains have already exploded) and there is no way to keep that momentum up, but Art pulls it off, mostly. Even with some of the "slow" parts it doesn't take long until a small, medium or large action set piece pops up. This is a must see and is up there with the best DTV action flicks I've seen. Perfect for upcoming 90's Action! day.

    (Oh, the finale takes place in the villain's drug factory. So, yeah, "Drugs")

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  15. SOMETHING WEIRD (1967)

    It’s the swinging ‘60s! This one checks off three of the big boxes: Drugs, ESP and witchcraft. A psychic sells his soul to a witch, becomes a huge success, and then experiments with LSD. It’s mostly plotless, with characters hanging out at various cocktail parties, with occasional horror and/or freakout scenes. I really liked the witch, played by Mudite Arums (her real name, no doubt) who seems to think she’s in a children’s show instead of a trippy drug flick. Yeah, what are we to make of director Hershell Gordon Lewis? This stuff is unbelievably cheap, but with occasional flourishes of great style. Why can’t the whole movie be the stylish parts?

    Accompanying short: YOU CAN’T DO THAT ON TELEVISION: DRUGS (1981). This early Nickelodeon kids’ show did the usual anti-drug episode, but with a twist. Instead of depicting drugs on screen, the kids hit each other in the face with pies instead, and they act high afterward. It’s either shockingly offensive or it’s brilliant satire. (Or maybe both.)

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  16. Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke (1978)

    Funny at times but also sort of endless feeling. I don't regret watching it but I'm not going to be seeking out any more Cheech and Chong movies. It's just not my thing.

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    1. I went this one too.

      Up in Smoke (78): I must confess I was enjoying sun bathing at the time and wasn't giving it my full attention. It seems like a good time but maybe not my type of good time? Some wacky joy to be had though.

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  17. Limitless 2011
    I don't want to sound boring but im not a fan of drugs, I'm not anti at all, I believe in Bill Hick's thoughts, "As long as you don't hurt anyone else you can do whatever you like to your own body" So as a non drug user I have to say that if ever a drug is tempting it would be one that connects the conscious to the subconscious, I love the idea of Limitless, everything being sharpened or heightened sounds amazing to me, that's the drug for me....

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    1. haha I for one think it's awesome that you don't like drugs! Me neither. And Limitless is a pretty sweet little movie.

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  18. I've always been pretty fond of "The Salton Sea." A fairly underviewed crime/drug/noir movie with a great Val Kilmer performance.

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  19. RICHARD PRYOR LIVE IN CONCERT (1979)
    Goes without saying.

    (if it needs to be said, it's this: when Rich filmed this set, which actually played movie theaters and everything back in the day, he was on a LOT of cocaine...like, a whole lot, and talks about it onstage)

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  20. Marihuana (1936) - First viewing

    "Marihuana, Hashish of the Orient, is commonly distributed as a doped cigarette. Its most terrifying effect is that it fires the user to extreme cruelty and licence."

    A "cautionary tale" in the same vein as Reefer Madness (I believe the director of Marihuana also produced Reefer Madness). A young girl (named Burma!?) ruins her life (and the lives of those around her) because she smoked a joint.

    Even at a measly 56 minutes, this was a chore to get through (although the surprising nudity helped a little, wasn't expecting that in a 1930's film). Never again.

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  21. The Trip (1967)
    First impression: what a silly fucking trip, man.
    Written by Jack Nicholson and directed by Roger Corman. Recent divorcee Peter Fonda drops acid for the first time at Bruce Dern's house. He trips out, hallucinates, doesn't take to it very well, and escapes into the city. He becomes introspective, contemplative, speculative, and paranoid to the world around him, none of which he really needed LSD to be, but this is a drive-in movie about the counterculture, so of course he has to take LSD. His fantasies play out like abbreviated portmanteau vignettes. Each one could have been interesting Corman films on their own. (One makes him seem like he's been dropped into Corman's Mask of the Red Death.) Instead, we get to see Peter Fonda trip out, have fever dreams of him having sex with kaleidoscopic strobelights spinning everywhere. These fantasies depict his state of mind -- feeling like the whole world is coming after him (were those templars chasing him?), hiding in a cave where he hears a witch cackling (rather Shakespearean if you ask me). This is about a man facing his insecurities at the height of the counterculture. If he was Native American, he'd smoke the peace pipe, but he's not, he's a commercial actor in California, so he drops acid.

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  22. Blow (2001)
    Great performance by Johnny Depp, In a movie that is actually really sad. This mans life gets torn apart by the one thing that he does best. That ending is still emotional to watch.

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  23. Filth (2013)

    James McAvoy plays a shitbag cop who manipulates everyone around him in an attempt to get a promotion. He also does all the coke while simultaneously not taking his medication. (DRUGS!)

    Despite playing a character who is just the worst (seriously, he does a lot of messed up shit to a lot of people), I still started feeling bad for him when he spirals out of control. I think it's just because I love James McAvoy so much.

    There is also a surprisingly emotional ending that actually really affected me.

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    1. Hi Angela! I have been avoiding this because I really don't like a specific kind of drug movie. I didn't like "Trainspotting", for example. I know coming from me this seems weird :) I really have been wanting to see this one though so is there anything you can compare it to?

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    2. It's more like a Bad Lieutenant than Trainspotting, I'd say; despite the same source material author.

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    3. I haven't seen Bad Lieutenant, but I can say that it's really nothing like Trainspotting. The drug use in this is really incidental, and is not the whole point of the movie. He doesn't do the things he does because he's on drugs, he does those things because he can. And then he does some coke. (Which made this a bit of a stretch for drugs, but I watched it anyway...)

      At this point, I can't really think of anything to compare it to, but I'll let you know if I think of something!

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  24. LUCY (2014, Luc Besson)

    The Junesploitation marathon is the best happening when you want to revisit old classic gems you love and share your experience with the whole world.
    It's day 7 and the today's motto is: drugs!!!
    There are a lot of great thrillers and also hilarious comedies like SO HIGH, HALF BAKED or even LIVING HIGH!! All of these three movies you MUST see!!!

    But this time I decided to give a new movie my very first view, Luc Besson's LUCY!

    It's an action movie about a chic, well played by Scarlett Johansson, who has to transfer a package of very special drugs, which is implanted in her stomach.
    Because of an incident the package got damaged and she got poisoned by the drug which made her brain activities grew up to 100%.
    LUCY is directed by Luc Besson, but do yourself a favor and fade this fact out, because LUCY is NOT a NIKITA, a LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL or even a FIFTH ELEMENT!!!

    LUCY is a well made big-budget-action-trash with a very weird story and the finale is a pure trip!!!
    Give this movie a try and don't forget the popcorn!!!

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  25. Blue Sunshine (1978)

    Depending on your temperament, you’re going to think Zalman King is either the best thing or the worst thing about this movie. King plays our hero Jerry Zipkin (you heard me), who is investigating a series of mysterious deaths he’s become implicated in. Although Jerry is innocent, he cannot seem to stop acting like a deranged serial killer even when he’s just standing still. The film has good direction and editing, and a suitably creepy music score. It also has a parrot and a Barbra Streisand puppet, just so you know.

    Oh, and Brion James – I love ya, man, but your Rodan impression sucks.

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    1. Barbra puppet? Is this is blasphemy or awesome? I am very curious to watch haha

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    2. Like so much of this movie, they mean it to be awesome, but...

      The biggest problem is the voice they use sounds nothing like her, so I'll have to go with blasphemy.

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  26. Legend of Drunken Master (1994)

    Alcohol-generally a movie about that involves either college/high school party shenanigans or Nicholas Cage in Vegas (not getting married). Instead in this movie it gives Jackie Chan the superpower of drunken boxing. This movie has perhaps the best fight sequence of Jackie's career (although their are many to pick from in his movies). As usual for most Jackie Chan movies the plot is kinda silly but the action is top notch with the classic mix of physical comedy and excellent martial arts for you to enjoy. If your even a minor Jackie Chan fan you have to see this movie, And as always be sure to keep it on for the credits to see just a bit of what Jackie goes through for our entertainment

    8 Word Review (In Preparation for SMM)

    "All hail Jackie Chan and his drunken glory"

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    1. How fucking cool is the woman who wins in a fight with him? I do that backwards leg kick in my morning routine. And hail to Jackie Chan!

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  27. A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (2011)

    It’s not as drug focused as perhaps the first movie, but Adam and Erich’s piece on buddy movies made me think of this for some reason. There is a sweetness between Harold and Kumar amongst of all of the crass humour (including a Claymation scene, because… Christmas). Crack addict NPH is back because heaven kicked him out and there’s a baby possibly on drugs?

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  28. Drug War (2012)

    Outstanding Chinese thriller about a driven police captain who flips a dealer in an attempt to snare a drug lord. There are echoes of Michael Mann and Infernal Affairs but this is its own movie. Tense, stylish, brilliantly acted and has a terrific score - I can't recommend it highly enough.

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    1. Johnnie To just flat out makes great movies. I particularly like Exiled from the late 00s.

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    2. This is the first of his I've seen so will definitely be checking out some more.

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    3. This also made me think of Michael Mann. But to me, its like a better version of him.

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  29. The Invisible Maniac (1990, dir. Adam Rifkin)

    Ugh. A scientist takes an invisibility drug and poses as a high school physics teacher so he can pull girls' tops off, kill people and cackle incessantly. I've liked some movies from Adam Rifkin (credited here as "Rif Coogan"), but this is stupid, unfunny, misogynistic junk. The low point of the month so far.

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    1. Man, that's a bummer. I saw the director and thought it might have at least been interesting.

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    2. So the Invisible Man parody in Amazon Woman on the Moon is better, then?

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    3. Amazon WOMEN, rather. I hate auto correct.

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    4. This is one of my favorite movies! Noel Peters was incredible; the only other thing he was ever in was the Whitney Houston TV version of Cinderella. But then, I thought Dieter Laser was hilarious in Human Centipede 3. :)

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    5. Laser was Insufferable, so I definitely will hate this movie!

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    6. Well see? This is what I'm always saying: a movie you don't like is someone else's favorite and a movie you love is hated by someone else. The world is a rainbow!

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    7. And he killed that one guy with a submarine sandwich!

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    8. Wait, death by hoagie!? Maybe I would like it!

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    9. It's, like, the one joke in the movie. Unless you count a series of sexual assaults as "jokes."

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  30. CHEECH & CHONG'S UP IN SMOKE (1978)
    I guess I'm the one who loves this stupid movie. Sure, it'd be better if it wasn't full feature length, and a lot of gags fall flat (particularly if you don't happen to be high while watching it), but overall I still enjoy it.

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    1. I do think drug day tends to fall flat around here because this isn't a group that seems too into drugs in their personal lives. Anybody can get the appeal of a zombie or blaxploitation movie, but drug movies don't really make any sense from the perspective of someone who doesn't really do them.

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    2. That's a really good observation. I couldn't be less interested in drugs and don't have much of an interest in drug movies. I suspect this category will sit out next year's lineup.

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    3. I'm more of a "Don't do drugs, do drug movies," guy, myself. I don't know why that is. I probably got into them more when Tarantino recommended them, or when certain directors made them, and gradually became more accepting of the subgenre. It wouldn't disappoint me if it were missing from next year's slate, though. It's nowhere near my favorite subgenres of exploitation.

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    4. Very well could be, I guess D.A.R.E worked after all! #BringBackApesploitation

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    5. Squares! No, just kidding, I grew out of that stuff many, many moons ago but it still seems like such a potentially fun category and so much in line with the subversive nature of exploitation in general that I think of it as kind of a must. I mean, I'm not into eating people like Patrick goes on and on about doing, but I enjoy vicariously dining on the forbidden flesh with a good cannibal movie every once in a while.

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    6. Sometimes it's lonely being a pothead;-) I appreciate this genre not being everyone's cup of tea. I personally would have made it a triple feature if I had the time.

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    7. I can't stand movies about drug addiction. You can't pay me to watch Requiem for a Dream. But I'll watch a movie about cops trying to bring down a drug lord, so this day was good for me. But I'm all for it not being here next year.

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    8. I'm good either way. Any category is fine cause you can always think outside of the box and find something even of minimal relevance.

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  31. Vigilante (1983): I really liked this movie. Compelling action that comes from a real sense of edgy vengence. And Fred Williamson is a boss.

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    1. Don't forget Woody Strode beating naked dudes in prison showers too.

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  32. High School (2010)

    I should have realised this would be terrible with a pun in the title. A student tries to get the entire campus high so he doesn't fail a school wide drug test. No hilarity ensures at all. It was interesting to see Michael Chiklis in a wig giving a Mr Feeny impression from 'Boy Meets World', which is a amusing for all of two minutes. Sigh.

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  33. Psych Out (1968)
    This one really is a trip! Deaf Susan Strasburg runs away to California looking for her brother and discovers the counterculture when she meets a hippie stoner band fronted by Jack Nicholson (with a ponytail!), Adam Roarke, and Max Julian. They stop to see an old bandmate, played by Dean Stockwell, dressed as an Indian, before finally located Susan's brother, a druggie religious nut played by beardly longhair Bruce Dern. This one's directed by The Stunt Man's Richard Rush and shot by Laszlo Kovacs.

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  34. Lucy (2014)

    Scarlett Johansson gets forced into the role of Drug Mule and exposure to the product has interesting consequences. The marketing (what little I saw ) caused me to expect a different movie, but I wasn't disappointed in the one I got.

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  35. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

    Haven't seen this since watching it several times in the first couple years after its release and this was the first time I'd seen it not under the influence of some sort of psychedelic myself. The story is a bit too aimless and the message a bit too muddled to really work as a movie (best to stick with the book), though it does frequently capture the feeling of "tripping" quite accurately, so that's something. I still liked it though - definitely worth a watch.

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  36. Body Melt (1993)

    Splatter fest out of Australia. This was a lot of fun. First off, the movie is batshit crazy and doesnt make a ton of sense, but that really doesn't matter because I was highly entertained with whatever was going on. Basically, a fitness company is experimenting workout drugs on people unknowingly with horrible results. Its kinda like Street Trash mixed with Dead Alive. Not nearly as good as those films, but in the same vein. Only 1hr 19mins running time!

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    1. This is another one I've wanted to see, recommended by QT. Tell me this is on YouTube.

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    2. YouTube fails on this one, sorry. I watched it free on Amazon Prime last year, not sure if it's still up. Great choice for Drugs! day, Mike P! I wouldn't have though of this one.

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    3. I got it from Netflix DVD service. I couldn't find it on YouTube either. Thanks Chaybee. This has been the highlight so far of Junespoiltation!

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  37. Watched DePalma's Scarface, and I still don't love it. I don't really dislike it, but it has never really worked for me the way it works for other people. It's a very well made movie, and it hits all the points it should, but... I just don't dig it. Maybe next time?

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  38. Tiger Cage (1988, Woo-Ping Yuen)

    After opening with an insane, 15-minute action sequence (pretty sure the second shot of the movie is a guy getting a gun pointed at his head) the film slows down considerably. Had it kept that pace and level of nuttiness it might be one of my favorite action movies ever, but the action stays pretty great even if its frequency becomes a lot more intermittent. A pseudo-expose on Hong Kong police corruption with a grim, astonishingly high main character body count for a movie that started off pretty goofy.

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  39. Kid Cannabis (2014) (first time viewing)

    Nerdy kid finds out there is money to be made by selling pot, so he smuggles it down from Canada. Interesting story (based on true events), but that's about it. Grew to progressively dislike the lead more and more as it went on. I guess that's okay because he was technically a drug smuggling bad guy?? It was alright, I guess.

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  40. Boogie Nights. Need I say more. It's fucking Boogie Nights.

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  41. Drug War (2012)

    This Chinese film is all about a group of police officers and one drug trafficker under their control trying to bring down the drug mob. Its really good. Like... really good. I'm so glad Patrick gave it a recommendation! The atmosphere of this film is incredible. The cinematography and music are both breathtaking. What a well directed film. A lot of great performances, but special shout out to Honglei Sun who is wonderfully understated and completely becomes another person when his character goes undercover.

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  42. Goodfellas (1990)

    Not exactly drugsploitation, but the drugs end up playing a major role. Decided to watch it with a buddy of mine who'd never seen it before. As always, it was friggin great. I mean it's Goodfellas.

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    1. One big thing that movie is about is how drugs brought about the fall of the mob. It was so glamorized for its coolness until drugs came on the scene.

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  43. Altered States (1980)

    Better late than never. This has a lot more on its mind than just drugs. Small topics like evolution of the species and regression. Somehow among all the craziness it seems like it's Ken Russell's most focused work. Worthwhile viewing.

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  44. Lots of good drug movies here guys, im actually getting a contact high ;)

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  45. Death Walks at Midnight (1972)

    Feels like mid-grade giallo to me. A fashion model witnesses a murder while high on a new experimental hallucinogen and struggles to convince those around her that what she saw was real (understandably difficult to do in that context). Nieves Navarro is perfect in the lead, the opening and closing set pieces are both fantastic, and there's a reveal at the start of the third act that's compellingly written and beautifully photographed. Some of the bits in the middle drag a little, but overall it's definitely worth checking out for giallo fans.

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  46. The Black Godfather (1974)

    This was pretty bad. That is all.

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  47. Drug War (2012)

    Wow. That was excellent. The movie was extremely confident from the very beginning and almost instantly I knew all of the characters and their relationships to each other, something which usually takes a while with foreign films. The acting, writing, directing, cinematography, editing... they were all great. I'm excited to watch the movie again at some point.

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