Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Junesploitation 2016 Day 29: Free Space!

Look forward to a world without windows, without the possibility of escape, and without hope. A claustrophobic world bursting at the seams with pent-up aggression and caged terror!

76 comments:

  1. Double Trouble (Non c'รจ due senza quattro) (1984)

    Wanted to watch a Bud Spencer movie, so why not one where Spencer (as well as Terence Hill) has a double role?

    A saxophonist (Spencer) and a stuntman (Hill) happen to be the spitting image of two Brazilian millionaire cousins, so they are hired to impersonate them when there's a plan to assassinate the cousins. Hilarity, and split screen effects, ensue.

    There's classic Spencer/Hill scrapes, with plenty of inventive gags from Terence and open-handed slaps from Bud, plus some hilarious overacting from the duo as the high society cousins. The film also seems to double as a Rio de Janeiro tourism advert, with nice scenery and visits to a football game and carnival celebrations.

    You will be missed, Carlo.

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    1. Bonus: Rise (2016)

      In keeping with honoring great actors who we've recently lost, here's a short movie starring Anton Yelchin.

      Rise is a short film made as a proof of concept to gain interest and backing for the director's movie pitch. The rise of sentient AI and fearful humans starting a war against them isn't exactly a new idea, but the short looks good and Yelchin delivers. A real shame he won't be a part of the (potential) full-length movie.

      See it on Vimeo.

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    2. Curse of the Undead (1959)

      I watched a lot of Weird West genre stuff on Western day, but one of the ones I didn't get around to was this Vampire Western movie. It starts off pretty strong with some unexpected deaths early on and even though it slows down a bit in the middle I found myself really liking this one.

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    3. I love me some Specer/Hill sock'em comedies. Shame they were never properly (ever?) released in the States as R1's, but guess that's what modified players for other regions (or YouTube) is for. :-)

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  2. Finally watching Night of the Comet. I watched Weekend at Bernie's too. I now understand the Catherine Mary Stewart fixation.

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  3. Death Proof (2007)

    I have a theory about Death Proof. Whenever Kurt Russell is on screen it's incredible. He goes away and the movie kinda dies, then it's just the girls (some very miscast) having uninteresting conversations and it drags hardcore. Still love it though, that car chase is one of the best things ever.

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  4. Patema Inverted (2013)
    Japanese anime movie about two cloistered civilisations – one above ground, the other below ground – that are separated by their inverted gravity. For one group, the sky is above them and they are grounded on the Earth. For the other group, they live underground and the sky is a massive void they fall into if they step off their underground tunnel city. Basically, “up” is “down” and “down” is “up”. Rightside up boy meets upside down girl and a lot of running from government officials ensue. The animation is stunning – especially when it rotates the perspective 180 degrees from one character to another. A bit of a meandering pace though, but overall I liked it.

    Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
    Taika Waititi’s latest movie. Sort of felt like a kiwi version of Moonrise Kingdom. It’s light and pleasant. Quite a lot of families at my screening, and it really played well to the audience. Julian Dennison gets massive props for being an obviously obnoxious character, yet an appealing screen presence. Sam Neill is awesome but not as coarse as I feel like his character should be. Rhys Darby didn’t ruin the movie (he’s like wasabi – a little bit is fun, but too much ruins a meal). It’s a good little afternoon flick.

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  5. The Lobster (2015)
    The premise: people have to find a romantic partner or they'll be turned into an animal. Don't be fooled, though: this is not a hard sf body horror tale of bioengineering gone mad. It's about human relationships. It's slow, and people talk like Edward Albee characters.

    If you're up for a bumpy, twisted look into love, communication and society, then give it a go.

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  7. Night of the Comet (1984)

    After a whole month of immersing myself in genre movies in Junesploitation, this movie was like the cherry on top. And there is still a few movies to go. Comet has everything that is great about the 80s. Teenagers taking on the world (or in this case what's left), synth music, a little bit of horror, ray bans, genre mashing, mad science, 80s hair and Catherine Mary Stewart. This is a really special movie, and on a cold night, it was a warm blanket of happiness.

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  8. Streets of Fire (1984)

    Yes, I did miss out on F this Movie Fest and I am catching up. This movie is off the hook. This is a movie is its own universe, feels completely lived in and itches with texture. It's a place I can acctually go there right? Apart from the roving motocycle gangs it looks wonderful. P.S - I have already bought the soundtrack and I am going to have to source the rest of Walter Hill's movies.

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    1. A day that passes without listening to 'Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young" is a day wasted.

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    2. I have been listening to it all morning, so I would have to agree sir.

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    3. Walter Hill's a tricky wicket. If I were to guess where to head next in his oeuvre for you, your safest bet is probably The Warriors (I can't remember if you've already knocked that one out or not.) Rick Moranis' performance in this movie is something I often use to convince myself that maybe I still have what it takes to be a movie star.

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  9. The Shallows (2016)

    Blake Lively gets attacked by a shark. When it's not trying to be all serious with it's backstory, this movie works. It's pretty tense throughout. It is exactly what you think it is....a not great, but still fun, shark movie.

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  10. Amy Holden Jones' THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE (1982, 76 min.) on DVD.

    I don't buy Michael Villella's assertions that he modeled his driller killer role after the body movements of a peacock (really?), but damn if the way director Amy Holden Jones frames him (face and hideout visible at all times, unlike most slashers' killer POV angle hiding him/her from audiences) doesn't work like gangbusters. I've seen the sequels and they both have their charms (has there ever been a horror series directed exclusively by women?), but the '82 original has the perfect balance between gore (neither too little or too much, just about right), tension, sense of humor (both intentional and unintentional) and exploitative nudity. Plus it's a fat-free 76 min. that lives up to the poster and tag line. #Truthinadvertisingsploitation!

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    1. I love this movie. I think it's really underrated.

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    2. Women's basketball, in the 80s. That's the best part. Great movie, I agree.

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    3. If you decide to keep up with these "massacre" movies, Vargas, don't sleep on the Sorority House franchise. In my experience, they're even better.

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  11. DRIVE ANGRY 3D (2011, 104 min.) on Blu-ray 3D for the first time.

    Is it me or this movie nowhere near as badass, violent and gory-for-gore's sake as its attitude and swagger suggests? Cage plays a father out to avenge his daughter's death by tracking down the satanic cult leader (Billy Burke) that took his infant grandson. Lots of people get shot, impaled or blown to bits with the cheapest-looking CG imaginable (a Millennium Films specialty, i.e. "Expendables," "___ Has Fallen," etc.) while a mysterious stranger called 'The Accountant' (William Fincher, who's essentially playing Mayhem from the Allstate Insurance commercials) flips coins and is constantly on Milton's tail.

    Not even Amber Heard and David Morse can humanize the poser way Cage plays the hero, but the native 3D effect and cool muscle cars ('69 Dodge Charger) make this a passable time waster. Given the cast pedigree and attempt to be an unapologetic 'B' movie with Hollywood money behind it, "Drive Angry 3D" left me wishing I'd watched "Dredd 3D" instead.

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  12. Roland Emmerich's INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE 3D" (2016, 120 min.) in theaters for the first time.

    No, this sequel to the 1996 blockbuster classic does not earn the use of David Arnold's awesome closing credits music. But the movie that preceded it is as cheesy, goofy, entertaining and flawed as the first movie was. "Resurgence" does not have a single memorable line of dialogue or iconic shot, and it's special effects aren't groundbreaking or better/worse than any other summer spectacle movie. At least it brought back Dean Devlin and Emmerich, who along with three other credited screenwriters recapture the chemistry and sense of fun absent from Emmerich's past decade-and-a-half of disaster porn. Where the spectacle either fails to impress or feels by the numbers (how many times can alien invasion movies drill to the core of the Earth? Enough already!), "Resurgence's" mixture of character moments and epic disaster feels close-enough to the original formula to make it a worthy but unnecessary sequel whose sole reason for existing is cashing in on "ID4's" evergreen popularity.

    While some characters are wholly unnecessary (Deobia Oparei, Charlotte Gainsbourg), how can you not love seeing the Levinsons (Judd Hirsh and Jeff Goldblum) or Pres. Whitmore (Bill Pullman) back in the alien fighting saddle? There's an awkwardness to how the actors interact, though (David and the president meeting in the hangar), as if even the actors don't know what their character motivations are. At least Liam Hemsworth is Chris Pratt-ing the shit out of his hotshot pilot with a permanent beef against the son of Will Smith (Jessie T. Usher), but the rest of the young cast is as forgettable as Nicolas Wright and Brett Spiner (the fuck?) doing comic relief shtick. Any movie that makes William Fincher US President is a winner in my book, but "Resurgence's" missteps (Vivica A. Fox's role, not one mention or throwaway line about the sacrifice of Russell Case in "ID4," etc.) bring down its positives. I'll own it and put in my collection, but "ID4" remains king of the fun epic disaster movies by a country mile.

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  13. Ichi the Killer (2001)

    Oh, my! 5 stars!

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    1. This is one of the great movies. It's its generation's Tetsuo: The Iron Man. I guess the current generation's version of this is Love Exposure. Is the next generation's version The World of Kanako? I would hope it was something even crazier.

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    2. I liked Kanako (in my top ten last year) better than Ichi somehow. I know, that's crazy talk. Ichi isn't even in my top three Miike films either. I know, crazy talk again and I would not fault anyone for disagreeing.

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    3. I'll concede to that remark only because I think you've seen more Miike films than most people. If I was picking a personal top three Miike, I'd do Ichi, Great Yokai War, and Imprint, but I've yet to see the Zebraman or Yatterman movies, 13 Assassins, Fudoh, etc. Speaking of Fudoh... you just picked my next movie of the night for me.

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    4. Goddamn. I've seen 18 Miike movies as of now, so that makes only... 79 to go. Jesus.

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    5. Fudoh was the 2nd Miike film I saw. I love it!

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    6. Dude has made so many movies! This is only the 2nd one I've seen but I'll be watching more.

      Ichi, near the end, had me in sad tears (for the first time the Junsploitation) followed by laughter minutes later.

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    7. The last 20 minutes of so of that movie is one of the pieces of filmmaking I've watched to the most times in my life. Like the opening credits of Enter the Void, sometimes I'll just put it on just to watch that one part. Ichi also has my favorite end credits sequence of all time. I don't even speak Japanese, but I can appreciate how insanely unorthodox it is.

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  14. Survival Quest (1989, dir. Don Coscarelli, on DVD) - First Time Viewing: What a weird, quirky, great little movie. I guess you could say that about every Coscarelli movie. It has the feel and themes of an after-school special, but with R-rated violence, nudity and profanity. Lance Henriksen stands out as a leader and team mentor for a group of adults on a wilderness trek. Too bad they run into an evil group on a similar trek. Shenanigans ensue. This movie has a lot to say about leadership and teamwork. I really liked this movie (4 out of 5 Griers).

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  15. Bloodfist 5: Human Target (1994)

    Pretty standard straight to video sequel. In my opinion, this one suffers from a problem that happened to many martial arts action stars of the 80's and 90's. The more movies and sequels they made, the more the action we want to see gets overshadowed by more and more needlessly elaborate stories to justify the fighting.

    In the first Bloodfist, Don "The Dragon" Wilson has to use his kickboxing skills in a Manila tournament to avenge his dead brother. This movie involves memory loss, the FBI, an arms dealing cartel, and a search for errant plutonium. In the early movies, his kickboxing skills make sense in context. Not so much in this one. Although, I must say the movie takes a delightfully unexpected turn in the last act which I appreciated.

    There's a few decent fight scenes, but not nearly enough. I was promised Bloody Fists, dammit!!

    p.s. Steve James is the best.

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  16. THE KILLER (1989)

    The first John Woo movie I ever saw, around 1994 or so. Changed my life in a big way. I hear he's back at it over there, & that makes me so happy I could jump around in slow motion firing two Berettas for about a week straight.

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  17. Top Line (1988) Dir. Nello Rossati

    Franco Nero stars in this "Italian adventure-sci-fi-espionage-action flick that combines Indiana Jones with the Terminator and Romancing the Stone". Do you need more?! You end up in a cave in the jungle where they find a One-Eyed Willy style ship inside a crashed UFO and some Nazi and Cyborg are trying to kill Nero for a treasure.

    Sounds INCREDIBLE right?! Well, that's how they were able to sell these films back then. It's not as good as the description, of course, but still had some fun watching it. Cyborgs, an alien, George Kennedy playing a Nazi, some decent effects, laser sounds, a thieving kid getting karate chopped in the chest and face melting made it worth it.

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    1. Your "disclaimer"-y description of it still makes it sound pretty good.

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    2. Ummmm...it's fun enough when it wants to be. You just can't live up to that kind of amazing marketing. Straight up Golan-Globus style.

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    3. You can't buy that kind of marketing line, man. That'd be like being disappointed when some movie you rented based off of the box description wasn't actually "Lynchian".

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  18. TekWar (1994)

    TekWar, a series of books written by Ron Goulart from outlines by William Shatner, was turned into four TV movies and then a TV show that lasted for a season. This is the first TV movie, directed by The Shat himself.

    Set in 2045, a cop (Greg Evigan) who was imprisoned for 15 years for crimes he didn't commit wakes up from suspended animation only after four years. He learns that his wife and son have moved on and that it was the CEO of private security firm Cosmos (The Shat) who had him released early. He's offered a job in Cosmos and promised help to clear his name in exchange.

    It's exactly what you'd expect from a 90's scifi detective show. A pretty generic story, bad actors and bad CGI. For the futuristic look, they pretty much just copied Back to the Future Part II from five years earlier. It's not good, but on the other hand there is a robot hockey player assassin, so it's definitely worth seeing just for that. May have to stick with this just for Shatner.

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  19. Loving the Jpeg at the top of the column, The Midget Dwarf clown from the one and only Xtro....

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    1. Thank you sir, you need to watch Xtro as a palate cleanser to Independence day, you'll feel better. :)

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  20. Cut-throats Nine (1972 dir. Joaquin Luis Romero Marchent) on Blu-ray.

    A wagon containing a group of vile criminals chained together is robbed and destroyed, leaving them and a sergeant and his daughter to survive. Murders galore follow. A mixture of a spaghetti western and horror, with weird flashbacks and dream/nightmare sequences. Very bleak but recommended.

    Mr. Bricks: A Heavy Metal Murder Musical (2011 dir. Travis Campbell) on Youtube.

    When heavily face-tattooed felon is shot in the head and left for dead, he's on a mission to find his prostitute lover and the man who tried to kill him. Also, he breaks out singing death metal. It's weirldly entertaining if you can get past the bad acting and the low-budget visuals. The metal songs remind me of a secondhand Pantera cover band. I feel like it could have been a lot more entertaining if it went the more bat-shit instincts.

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  21. Angel (1984)

    This was an unexpected treat. The poster/cover art always made me think this would be a pile of sub-Cinemax softcore nonsense, but there's a real movie here, at times even a pretty good one.

    Donna Wilkes is Angel, a high school student by day, Hollywood hooker by night. What's surprising is how quirky it is, with the denizens of Hollywood Boulevard providing memorably colorful support, including Dick Shawn as a transvestite and Rory Calhoun as a faded cowboy star. I'd have dug watching these characters even in something with less lurid subject matter, and that's a welcome surprise. That being said, even the lurid stuff was handled pretty well, with Wilkes a likable lead. Glad I finally caught up with it.

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  22. A fun double for today's Free Space

    Coneheads (1993) & Creepshow (1982)

    Today's choices were movies that somehow I had never managed to see to get around to seeing in their entirety before. Both movies I always seemed to stumble upon when they were on tv so I only got to see parts here and there.

    The SNL ensemble in Coneheads is impressive, probably one of the largest in any single movie. I was always a fan of Aykroyd when he did characters with a bit of a quirk to them, it's a shame he never really gets the roles anymore. The movie is completely ridiculous but fun and funny, a great lazy day movie.

    I can't believe it has taken me this long to actually watch the full 5 story anthology of Creepshow all at once. The collaboration of George A Romero, Stephen King and Tom Savini makes for a must see for horror fans. The stories are black comedy horror gold, a real throwback to the styles of William Castle, and Kurt Neumann. Each story is its own separate thing linked together in the Creepshow comic book. It's a shame studios only ever wanted zombie movies from Romero and didn't let him branch out more often.

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  23. WITCHCRAFT IV: THE VIRGIN HEART (1992)
    William, the series’ heroic lawyer and/or witches’ chosen one, investigates mysterious goings-on at a sleazy LA nightclub. To no one’s surprise, witchcraft is to blame. Pinup model Julie Strain co-stars. While she’s not the best actress, at least she’s having fun, unlike the rest of the sleepwalking cast.

    WITCHCRAFT V: DANCE WITH THE DEVIL (1993)
    Yet another warlock shows up in LA with a plan to get William to stop lawyering and join the forces of evil. There’s some crazy stuff like a Satan-themed nightclub with magic acts, and an exorcism performed by a weird lady exorcist. The problem is that the filmmakers thought they were being all dark and intense, only for it to come out unintentionally goofy and silly.

    666: DEVILISH CHARM (2014)
    I wanted to watch WITCHCRAFT VI here, but it mysteriously vanished from the internet even though it was there just a few days ago. Instead I watched this movie, in which sorority girls dabble in black magic and we’re supposed to be shocked that it doesn’t end well for them. Waste of time.

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  24. Army of Darkness - 1992

    Groovy! What a ridiculous and crazy film, i decided on this film because i watched the previous 2 films yesterday and its just so funny how different this film is, Bruce Campbell is fantastic as always and this is the funniest of the 3.

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  25. Hellhole (1985, dir. Pierre de Moro)
    Women's prison sleaze with an all-star cast that includes Marjoe Gortner, Mary Woronov, Robert Z'dar's jaw and Judy Landers. Not great, but very much in the spirit of the month.

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    1. Yes! What a cast! Is this that one that's just coming out on bluray? Marjoe, Z'dar, Dr. Vadar and Dr. Alien in a WIP movie? That sounds pretty heavy!

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  26. "Have you ever cut off a China mans head? They don't bleed, not like we do"
    Probably the most crazy Splotation line I heard all month

    The Prophecy 1995

    The Archangel Gabriel walks among us and his name is Christopher Walking, a very pale looking angel with black hair, and Viggo mortensen plays Lucifer, a dark horror comedy leaning more towards horror, these religious movies don't seen to have the power they used too, but Walken does seem to be having fun here and his tongue is in his cheek, overall fun but forgetable

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  27. Forbidden World (1982)

    Alien? What's Alien? I don't think I've ever heard of it...

    Sci-fi schlock at its best. There are two women in this movie. The only place they could find to talk was in the shower...naked...cleaning each other off. There will never be another 80s. Another high point in the stellar year of 1982. "It wants to use us as food." "Why doesn't it just eat us and get it over with." That's the spirit! The Blu-ray looks gorgeous and it's barely 77 minutes long. Perfection!

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  28. Bonus Feature

    TURBO KID (2015)

    One of my favourite movies from last year I had to fit it into Junsploitation. This is just such a great fun movie that I love more each time I watch it. Laurence Leboeuf's Apple is one of the most adorable characters in recent years and she's a bad ass too on top of it all. Michael Ironside as always is an old school badass, it's a real shame he wasn't acting during the Spaghetti Western era as he would undoubtedly have given many memorable characters at that time.

    As a side note I love the soundtrack too, it really ads to the 80's B-movie vibe and should definitely be sought out by any fans of the Drive soundtrack.

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  29. House on Haunted Hill (1959)
    Another fantastic Vincent Price film. While watching this I realized that it inspired one of my favorite Scooby Doo episodes.

    Evil Dead 2 (1987)
    Had to see this before Junesploitation ended, and I just made it. Still one of the best.

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  30. XTRO (1982):

    This one's for you, Dennis.

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  31. What am I gonna do? An unexpected bout of ill health murdered my ambition of maintaining perfect attendance during this year's Junesploitation, and I missed a few major days. Do I use today to catch up on the movies I would have watched those nights? Do I watch something totally crazy in the normal spirit of Free Space Days past (The Flying Luna Clipper, Cruel History of Women's Torture, Friendly Shock, etc.)? Do I go to the theater? (I've been using Moviepass the past few months, but within the last couple days the co-founder of Netflix became CEO of the service and made some plan changes that suggest I won't still be using it by this time next month.) I have yet to make up my mind.

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    1. Beauty's Evil Rose (1992, dir. Wah Chun Lam)

      I've been hyped to see this movie ever since I saw a New York Daily News critic say on the back cover of Thomas Weisser's invaluable 1997 book "Asian Cult Cinema" that "Weisser has earned my eternal gratitude for (if nothing else) persuading me to check out Beauty's Evil Rose." Now, having seen the movie, I can say that that's a bit of a hyperbole. If you'd never seen any other crazy HK black magic movies, this movie would probably change your life; but if you're familiar with the genre, this is probably just about the HK equivalent of Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers: there's enough whackiness to make it worth a viewing, but its toungue in cheekiness seems a little aware of itself, and it's more concerned with softcore sex than lasers and leeches. Still a happy audition to my resume. A clip.

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    2. The Astro-Zombies (1968, dir. Ted V. Mikels)

      I don't know if I would've been ready for this one two years ago, or even two months ago. You really have to watch tons and tons of movies before you begin to see their relationships to each other all begin to mean something; the movies that inspired John Carpenter and John Waters, how the audiences in Japan that viewed movies made within 20 years after WWII differed from American audiences 15 years ago... it's all relevant. Two years ago I would have been bored to death by this nearly immobile bit of hucksterism. Tonight I was thrilled by imagining being inside Ted V. Mikels head as he dared to see exactly how little he could actually put on screen and how little money he could spend doing it, and still get away with calling it a feature length motion picture. Every actor in the movie is either desperately trying to prove they deserve to be in it, or visibly couldn't care less about this piece of shit they're being paid to show up for. John Carradine, at the least, comes across as being very professional, showing up having memorized and trying to deliver convincingly all the near-meaningless techno-jargon his employer had asked him to recite. Mikels, HG Lewis, and other s of their ilk were salesmen, first and foremost, and the air of sensationalism they were able to construct around the absolute failure to entertain they actually delivered is, IMHO, the true heart of the exploitation experience. Trailer.

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    3. BTW, Astro-Zombies was a Big check off my watchlist. Have had this on DVD for ten years easy, and am finally happy to have banged it out. Corpse Grinders, I'm looking your way... you're out of there soon too, buddy!

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  32. Westworld (1973) Michael Crichton

    A fun one to rewatch. Richard Benjamin and James Brolin just want to get into some trouble and bang some robots, but iconic android Yul Brynner has gone rogue and they're in trouble. This one almost reaches all time classic status, but Crichton gets bogged down in some silly details and clumsily establishes some of the rules of his world. The mashup of western, action, sci fi and horror feels oh so right for Junesploitation though and it never stops being fun.

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  33. The Shallows (2016)
    Started watched Lifeforce and got side tracked and somehow ended up at the movies. Enjoy it so far, will finish later.
    I really liked The Shallows. Good tension buildup and doesn't often let up, even when the shark isn't on screen or shown lurking. Good performance by Blake Lively, which was a bonus. The seemingly super powered shark was a bit much and takes a few leaps in logic to accept. But, for a shark movie that isn't Jaws it's up there. Better than Deep Blue Sea I dare say...

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  34. Thirst (Bakjwi) 2009

    Finally this wasn't really an exploitation movie. Sure it has vampires. I'm not sure if it's just a weird love story, or a metaphor for something else. There is a priest who ends up thirsting after carnal pleasures once he becomes an accidental vampire (get it? Thirst, blood, vampires?). It was a little long and but beautifully shot. Kind of a sad movie. Not sure what I think yet.

    It was FINE! 5 stars for not being what I expected.

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    1. It's a masterpiece. South Korea, themes of Christianity, the director of Oldboy; don't worry about it, man, it's the real deal.

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    2. I really liked it, was kind of joking with "it's fine", with the words not coming to mind. I'm still digesting it, as it was chock full of themes and ideas. The girl was really good...the variability in personalities that she credibly portrays was impressive.

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  35. Not really exploitation movies... but here we go:

    Rebecca (1940)
    A dark, involving, and interesting story with excellent direction and wonderful acting.

    Blow-Up (1966)
    Blow-Up is amazingly nonchalant. Scenes take their time, often building to conclusions of seemingly little importance. Characters just kind of flow in and out when the plot needs them, but that almost makes it sound like it has much of a plot. It doesn't. The actual "plot" of the movie gets started late, and doesn't really have an end. And the movie is fascinating.

    Divorce Italian Style (1961)
    To misquote Lucille Austero: Divorce Italian Style is "deliciously wicked!"
    In all honesty though, the movie is still really funny and (thankfully) avoids being super hateful and cynical which it probably would be if it was made today. And I know I use superlatives way too much, but Marcello Mastroianni truly is incredible in the movie.

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  36. Xtro

    Holy shit. Spoiler alert: more vagina shaped wounds than any Cronenberg movie.

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  37. Dionysus in 69 (1970) Dir. Brian De Palma

    I would probably consider De Palma my second favorite director so this month I decided I need to finish his filmography and I have 5 more to go (Greetings, The Wedding Party, Hi Mom, Get to Know Your Rabbit and Home Movies.) I watched "Murder a la Mod" over the weekend and it's fucking incredible btw, especially knowing him, his style, and it's his debut that says "Hi, I'm Brian De Palma - you need to pay attention to me and there's no way you can't".

    I had a feeling I wouldn't like this one so I decided I needed to just bang it out. It's a stage play shot in split screen based on The Bacchae by that Euripides guy from Greece that I'm sure I learned about in middle school when I should have been learning about De Palma (and I was, at home :).

    I'm curious if he talks into more detail about this in the latest Documentary. Regardless, this is only for De Palma completists. (and yes, I looked into the play a bit and it's painfully obvious why he shot it in split screen).

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  38. Baytown Outlaws....batshit crazy, Tarantino wannabe, three redneck stooges meets Roadwarrior. I finally found a perfect companion to Death Proof. I have tasted a lot of new exploitation films this month, granted i didn't finish most of them, but i did find a few that i actually like, this one i bought... granted it was 1.99 on bluray, but i did buy it.

    The capital R Redneck Oodie brothers, local thugs for hire, take a road trip from Alabama to Texas to retrieve a handicapped kid with a trust fund being held by bet-I-can-phone-in-more-Cameos-than-you Thornton (what does he owe like money or something? he's basically a day player now) Longoria also only has a couple of scenes but both are above the line and the bulk of the movie poster. Our 'heroes' are Clayne Crawford (soon to be tv's Martin Riggs),viking king Travis Fimmel, and Xmen's colossus Daniel Cudmore - road-sweaty psychopaths all. On their odyssey they take on sexy prostitute assassins, APC driving militant african americans, and what I think are biker Native americans...they had already wiped out a houseful of Hispanics before the title card.

    The film made me laugh on two levels, the bickering between the numbskull brothers is both stupid and clever and realistic. On the other hand as an allegory for insecure white men's fantasy tale, after dropping a ton of bodies, including some luckless maid (and apparently never bathing..what is UP with that?) they are beset by all their deepest threats, powerful women and persons of color. and still end up the 'heroes' of their own story. laughed everytime.

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  39. Streets of Fire (1984, dir. Walter Hill) - first viewing

    Aside from "Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young" not a whole lot of this worked for me, sorry to say. Sorrier still - this is the second time this month I've felt let down by a new-to-me Walter Hill movie (the first was The Long Riders - shoot me).

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    1. Wow, I'm not alone in the world in not liking "Streets of Fire"? Someone pinch me! :-O

      Oh, and BTW Zach, BANG! (plop!). :-P

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    2. *plummets in slow motion*

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  40. The Guest (2014)
    It's The Guest, what more do you wanna know?
    I will not let Junesploitation pass without watching what has become one of my favorite films.
    It's so damn good. If you haven't seen it, make sure you do.

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  41. Breakdown (1997)

    It's my make up day and I've covered westerns, '80's horror and now cars. Russell is completely great as a yuppie caught up in the rural kidnapping of his wife. JT Walsh in one of his many brilliant performances, is the ringleader of the kidnapping ring. Like most films of its kind, Breakdown's plot relies on things going a certain or it would all fall apart. Thankfully the movie drops the mystery and switches gears before the kidnappers plotting gets ridiculous. Not a moment is wasted and I walk away feeling like I watched a minor classic.

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    1. Nice choice. Kathleen Quinlan and M.C. Gainey are also excellent in this, and Jonathan Mostow ("Terminator 3") directs the shit out of this movie without letting style get in-between the story and characters. Agree, an underrated minor modern noir classic.

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  42. TURBO KID (2015)

    Yes. YES, I SAY.

    I don't think this one's ever getting old.

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