Shame Brian Trenchard-Smith didn't spend more than the first 10-15 minutes of "Dead-End Drive-In" establishing its not-quite-"Mad Max"-but-getting-there dystopian future of 1995. A whole movie about tow truck drivers racing to accidents and fending off gangs of 'Karboys' trying to pick apart the wrecks (not to mention the ambulances trying to save the who-cares human victims) would have been boss. Alas, the bulk of the story centers on Jimmy, aka 'Crabs' (Ned Manning) and his girlfriend Carmen (Natalie McCurry) being stuck at the Star Drive-In when Jimmy's '56 Chevy (borrowed from his brother without his permission) is stripped of its wheels. Turns out the drive-in (which features nothing but 35mm prints of old Trenchard-Smith action flicks) is a government/police trap where unemployed youth are rounded-up and held against their will for the betterment of society. Peter Whitford quietly steals the movie as the seemingly benign administrator of the drive-in, but the real star of "D-E D-I" is the production/costume design. This is one stylish flick that struts its '80's MTV generation' peacock feathers proudly, with all sorts of car-themed outfits and improvised living quarters that, alongside Paul Murphy's gorgeous cinematography, make this one gorgeous-to-look-at picture. I wouldn't like to be stuck living at the Star Drive-In, but I'm glad to have seen it.
It's not until Asian immigrants are brought into the drive-in and the white youth start to organize against them to preserve their limited slum resources that the movie's theme emerges. Carmen sympathizes with the racist group thinking while Jimmy sees the authorities as the real enemy. I wasn't expecting in an Ozploitation car flick that the growing apart of the lead couple due to racism making them grow apart would be at the heart of its narrative. Trenchard-Smith pulls it off brilliantly while also delivering a rousing action finale that had me fist-pumping. It's his best movie I've seen to date. 3.75 CRIQUET PADDLE FIGHTS (out of 5).
[* The PLEX version of "D-E D-I" has 2.5 minute commercial breaks every 10 minutes. It's almost as bad as watching cable TV. YMMV.]
A made-for-TV Aussie horror pic that never got international theatrical distribution, "Outback Vampires" surprised me by overcoming its boring-as-shit opening 30 minutes (fell asleep and had to rewatch the rest when I woke up) and delivering an odd mix of "Addams Family-"type silliness and watered-down Peter Jackson low-budget horror prowess. Two rodeo-bound friends (Richard Morgan's Nick and Brett Climo's Bronco) and the hitchhiker they picked up (Angela Kennedy's Lucy) are stranded on the Outback when their car is disabled by a hidden trap. Turns out the local folks at the nearby small town do this ("The Cars That Are Paris" anyone?) to keep a steady trickle of human victims for Sir Alfred Terminus (John Doyle) and his family of worm-infected blood suckers, all of whom have weird eccentricities of their own. It takes a while to get going when our trio enter the Terminus mansion, but eventually "OV" lives up to its offbeat title with some clever vampiric gags and even some eye-opening, safe-for-Aussie-TV gore. The finale where a force-perspective,15-fee tall boss vampire battles out heroes in the daylight achieves an almost perfect balance between ridiculous and entertaining. The low-quality prints on the YouTube versions out there help a lot with the low-budget charm.
It's not scary at all, but fans of Anthony Hickox's "Sundown: The Vampires In Retreat" (which "borrowed" a few creative ideas from "OV") will appreciate its clunky charm. This might be the best "worst" J! I've seen so far, one I'd normally rank lower but today I'm feeling generous bestowing upon it 3 OTTO-FROM-"BEETLEJUICE" AUSSIE DEAD RINGERS (out of 5).
The Australian stuntman Grant Page died this year at the ripe age of 85. When you watch the stunts he pulled off in his career, it is easy to imagine the that it could have been a much shorter life. My favorite stunt of his is from the Australian biker film STONE. Seeing Page plunge hundreds of feet off a cliff on a motorcycle into the ocean is both exhilarating and frightening. As for STUNT ROCK, it is a strange amalgamation of a concert film and a stunt show. The linking thread between both aspects of the film is that Page is the cousin of a member of the rock band called Sorcery, which was a band in real life. While Grant Page works for a fictional television show in Los Angeles, he is hanging out with his cousin and the band in the studio and at gigs. Sorcery did put on a great show by featuring a magical fight between a wizard and the Devil taking place on stage. On paper the film should not work, but Trenchard-Smith, who began his media career as a news editor, had the skills to put everything together into a somewhat cohesive, yet still ridiculous, film. Probably best not too think too deeply about it, though.
An Australian schoolteacher on his way to spend Christmas with his girlfriend in Sydney stays in a small outback town overnight, but that one night stretches into several as he loses his money gambling and sinks deeper and deeper into a drunken haze of self-destruction.
It's amazingly bleak, horrifying without actually being a horror movie. You can feel the heat and smell the sweat through the screen. The kangaroo hunting scene is tough to watch, mainly because it features actual kangaroos being killed, filmed during a real hunt. Gary Bond is excellent as the lead, but the star of the movie is Donald Pleasance as the manic, wild-eyed, perpetually inebriated town doctor.
First up an observation: its super early in Ozploit day and already theres reviews from several 'best of' the genre. man i dig my F This Gang!
Razorback (1984)
I was going to begin my review by stating this is one of the best Jaws ripoffs ive ever seen..but honestly thats too reductive. The movie is absolutely original. Therefore it is one of the best "Person V Nature" movies ive ever seen. I f@#$ing love it. The setting, the action, the characters. Its lean, mean, and a blast. Theres an early scene that is one of the most creative and brutal ive seen in a long time. There are human villains that make this more than just a killer Razorback flick. The finale is very well written as it ties so many things together. Check this one out...you wont be disappointed.
(Bonus suggestion: if you want to know more about this genre, i highly suggest the 2008 documentary "Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild Untold Story of Ozploitation". Have a pen and paper handy as, if you are like me, you'll come away with a long list of flicks to seek out!!!)
This was my pick for today too, and a first time watch.
I think it works so well because the real monster is Dicko. He was scarier than any monster boar.
But the surprise joy for me was Arkie Whiteley, the Gyro Captain’s girl from The Road Warrior. She was delightful and funny and sexy and believable. I just wish she had more to do at the end of the movie. She should have had a bigger career and a much longer life.
I watched Razorback for the first time as well. Blown away. Every aspect of this movie is excellent: directing, acting, writing, editing, score, design, etc, and is incredibly stylish. This is a masterpiece! I agree with Mashke the best Jaws rip-off I have seen and just an awesome movie.
I don’t know if this movie is more bad or more disappointing.
Back in 1985 we were expecting Fury Road but instead got a PG-13, four-quadrant, go for jokes, music-video theme song, Lord of the Flies mish mash, with a confusing Bruce Spence recasting and an unimpressive Wez knock-off.
Counterpoint its neither. bad or disappointing. I loved Dome as a kid. I still do. Yes it has issues and yeah the Bruce Spense recast confused me as a kid but the movie is still awesome. The Wez knock off I have less issues with because Miller lets you know from the first meeting this guy is not that threat. Lord Humoungus' army was a group of monsters held together by a scarier monster. This gang is a bunch of city workers lead by a politician playing tough to keep power.
@Munkee I’m glad that it’s a movie you enjoy. And that’s an interesting take on it I’ve never considers, the minutia of city politics in the post-apocalypse. I haven’t rewatched it in at least 20-years. I even skipped it during the Max Mad Marathon at the New Bev last year. I should give it a rewatch.
I've wanted to see Bad Boy Bubby since June 17, 2009. Why do I know the exact date, you ask? That's when filmmaker Travis Betz recommended the movie on a now-defunct YouTube channel called The Rough Cuts. Remember those channels where each contributor was assigned a day of the week? For The Rough Cuts, a movie review channel, it was Coolduder on Monday, McGoiter on Tuesday, Travis Betz aka The Receptionist on Wednesday, K80Blog on Thursday, and ImJakeSrsly on Friday. I didn't need to look that up, I still remember it to this day. I watched religiously. So many of the movies recommended on that channel lived in a mental watchlist for a long time before I started keeping an actual list on Letterboxd. Some I've seen (Bad Ronald, Troll 2, Lo) since, while others (The Peanut Butter Solution, The Dark Backward, Crawlspace) still take up room on my watchlist.
I've tried Bad Boy Bubby many times over the years. It pops up on and quickly disappears from Tubi from time to time and just about every time I catch it, I turn it on. However, I've never been able to stomach it past the first ten minutes. This story, which Betz describes as what would happen if "Hal Ashby's Being There met Robert Zemeckis's Forrest Gump," is about a mentally stunted man who has been kept in captivity by his mother for over 30 years. The opening scenes alone feature incest, physical and mental abuse, and animal cruelty. Every time I've tried to turn it back on to muscle through, it has disappeared from Tubi.
Well, I decided to finally finish it for this Junesploitation. It does get decidedly less gross, but it's never less perverse. When Bubby does enter the world, people treat him like a freak, a pervert, and an amusement, while he rapes, murders, and learns nothing about himself or the world. It's a hard, humiliating watch. I'm glad I've finally finished it, if for no other reason that I won't feel the need to watch it again.
You're not alone. I can think of maybe 3 movies I wish I could un-see. This is one of them. Not that it is bad or without merit, I just wish it wasn't in my head. I guess that speaks to its power.
Hard as nails crime thriller about some attempts to steal money from a "Brinks" type security company. I don't remember who, but someone reviewed this last year and said it was the best thing they had seen all June. Well, they were right! This is the best movie I've seen all month. Thanks for the recommendation whoever you were. This is what Junesploitation is all about.
The Proposition (2005): with this movie, i learned that Guy Pearce was not American. He's not Australian either, but he plays one in movies 🤣 Anyway, it's a broody and dirty movie like all cool westerns should be. Written by genius musician Nick Cave, who also does the music. Tremendous cast too. First time watch in 15 years.
Bonus Junesploitation movie, Detroit Rock City (1999): it's been a while since i saw it, but it's still fun. R&R High School was better though 😜
THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH (1978) First-time watch. Kino Blu. 9/10. I think I first became aware of this flick when NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD came out. I've been sitting on the Blu for some time now. Wild flick. I watched the slightly longer Australian cut; no idea what's different between the two.
ROAD GAMES (1981) A truck driver and a hitchhiker (Jamie Lee Curtis!) pursue a serial killer up and down the freeways. I liked this one a lot. In most horror/exploitation movies, the lengthy dialogue scenes are filler, but the dialogue in this movie is sharp and witty. I was so enjoying the characters just hanging out and talking that I almost forgot a killer was on the loose. Once the thrills kick it up in the third act, things got intense and Hitchcock-ish. Great movie!
INCIDENT AT RAVEN’S GATE (1988) Okay, there’s this small-town farm run by a scientist and his punk-rockin’ younger brother, and then there’s a bunch of strange happenings around town. I don’t know. This one’s all about atmosphere, rather than a cohesive plot. It’s like Twin Peaks meets Repo Man meets X-Files meets Signs meets… Stephen King, maybe? I guess I enjoyed the movie, but don’t ask me to explain it.
Bonus Universal Monster-sploitation: GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942) Here’s where the series turns away from horror and into full-on comic book sci-fi/action. It’s also where the filmmakers become obsessed with the idea of transplanting one person’s brain into someone else’s body. But I like bonkers sci-fi, so I can’t help but enjoy this broken sequel.
Outback Vampires(1987 Dir Colin Eggleston) I had to tap out about 20 minutes into this one. I was watching was a VHS rip and the sound was too bad to make any dialogue out.
Sons of Steal (1988 Dir Gary L Keady) Yep its another one of your standard comedy sci-fi, time travel action adventure, heavy metal musical. Rob Hartley the lead singer of the Australian metal band Black Alice stars as Black Alice, rockstar and leader of the pacifist organization. Octagon. whom ends up demolecularized, stored as a hologram, then revived in the future only to be sent back to the past to stop his groups nuclear weapons protest. This movie is kind of batshit. The movie is insane, a jumble of plots, bad f/x, Hair metal and weird dialogue but its never boring. If it doesn't have midnight showings in Australia or didn't at least get a few in the 80s and 90s I'd be shocked.
Chose this after reading Paul Calvert's comment--great recommendation!
There's plenty of stuff I like in the big bucket of gritty '70s crime flicks, but sometimes I bump up against the arty, contemplative '70s-ness of it all (is this an action movie, or an inaction movie, amirite?). Money Movers does not have that problem AT ALL. It's wall-to-wall criminal activity and plot intrigue, so propulsive that even though I only felt like I was ever tracking, at best, 75% of the story and characters, I was hooked the whole way through.
For the first hour of the movie, I kept seeing the brother character (who's only somewhere between the 4th and 10th most important character) and thinking he looked crazy familiar. I finally broke down and looked it up, and realized I knew him from Cocktail, a movie I've seen ONCE. The dude has a distinctive look/voice/vibe, I guess. Coughlin's Law: Hurry up on that roller door!
Super fun crime movie, and a perfect Junesploitation pick.
Piggybacking off the selection of several others (see what I did there?)...
Razorback is a little schizophrenic. It's a Jaws clone, except now it's Mad Max, and now it's Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, and now it's Salvador Dali's nightmare (honestly, I'd love to see a version of the movie that's fully committed to the surreal hallucinating-through-the-desert, hot-girl-with-a-boar's-face stuff). While the tonal shifts can be jarring at times, they never stop the movie from being entertaining. It also looks great, chock-full of signature shots of silhouettes against the incredible outback landscape. I thought the monster was handled pretty well, too, between the rumbly charging hog POV and the close-up practical effects that showed just enough of the big pig to look scary, and hid just enough to keep it from looking goofy.
80's ARTSY OZPLOITATION DOUBLE FEATURE!
ReplyDeleteDEAD-END DRIVE-IN (1986, PLEX*)
OUTBACK VAMPIRES, aka THE WICKED (1988, YOUTUBE)
Shame Brian Trenchard-Smith didn't spend more than the first 10-15 minutes of "Dead-End Drive-In" establishing its not-quite-"Mad Max"-but-getting-there dystopian future of 1995. A whole movie about tow truck drivers racing to accidents and fending off gangs of 'Karboys' trying to pick apart the wrecks (not to mention the ambulances trying to save the who-cares human victims) would have been boss. Alas, the bulk of the story centers on Jimmy, aka 'Crabs' (Ned Manning) and his girlfriend Carmen (Natalie McCurry) being stuck at the Star Drive-In when Jimmy's '56 Chevy (borrowed from his brother without his permission) is stripped of its wheels. Turns out the drive-in (which features nothing but 35mm prints of old Trenchard-Smith action flicks) is a government/police trap where unemployed youth are rounded-up and held against their will for the betterment of society. Peter Whitford quietly steals the movie as the seemingly benign administrator of the drive-in, but the real star of "D-E D-I" is the production/costume design. This is one stylish flick that struts its '80's MTV generation' peacock feathers proudly, with all sorts of car-themed outfits and improvised living quarters that, alongside Paul Murphy's gorgeous cinematography, make this one gorgeous-to-look-at picture. I wouldn't like to be stuck living at the Star Drive-In, but I'm glad to have seen it.
It's not until Asian immigrants are brought into the drive-in and the white youth start to organize against them to preserve their limited slum resources that the movie's theme emerges. Carmen sympathizes with the racist group thinking while Jimmy sees the authorities as the real enemy. I wasn't expecting in an Ozploitation car flick that the growing apart of the lead couple due to racism making them grow apart would be at the heart of its narrative. Trenchard-Smith pulls it off brilliantly while also delivering a rousing action finale that had me fist-pumping. It's his best movie I've seen to date. 3.75 CRIQUET PADDLE FIGHTS (out of 5).
[* The PLEX version of "D-E D-I" has 2.5 minute commercial breaks every 10 minutes. It's almost as bad as watching cable TV. YMMV.]
A made-for-TV Aussie horror pic that never got international theatrical distribution, "Outback Vampires" surprised me by overcoming its boring-as-shit opening 30 minutes (fell asleep and had to rewatch the rest when I woke up) and delivering an odd mix of "Addams Family-"type silliness and watered-down Peter Jackson low-budget horror prowess. Two rodeo-bound friends (Richard Morgan's Nick and Brett Climo's Bronco) and the hitchhiker they picked up (Angela Kennedy's Lucy) are stranded on the Outback when their car is disabled by a hidden trap. Turns out the local folks at the nearby small town do this ("The Cars That Are Paris" anyone?) to keep a steady trickle of human victims for Sir Alfred Terminus (John Doyle) and his family of worm-infected blood suckers, all of whom have weird eccentricities of their own. It takes a while to get going when our trio enter the Terminus mansion, but eventually "OV" lives up to its offbeat title with some clever vampiric gags and even some eye-opening, safe-for-Aussie-TV gore. The finale where a force-perspective,15-fee tall boss vampire battles out heroes in the daylight achieves an almost perfect balance between ridiculous and entertaining. The low-quality prints on the YouTube versions out there help a lot with the low-budget charm.
It's not scary at all, but fans of Anthony Hickox's "Sundown: The Vampires In Retreat" (which "borrowed" a few creative ideas from "OV") will appreciate its clunky charm. This might be the best "worst" J! I've seen so far, one I'd normally rank lower but today I'm feeling generous bestowing upon it 3 OTTO-FROM-"BEETLEJUICE" AUSSIE DEAD RINGERS (out of 5).
DEDI is my pick, too! Great review!
DeleteSTUNT ROCK (1978, dir. Brian Trenchard-Smith)
ReplyDeleteThe Australian stuntman Grant Page died this year at the ripe age of 85. When you watch the stunts he pulled off in his career, it is easy to imagine the that it could have been a much shorter life. My favorite stunt of his is from the Australian biker film STONE. Seeing Page plunge hundreds of feet off a cliff on a motorcycle into the ocean is both exhilarating and frightening. As for STUNT ROCK, it is a strange amalgamation of a concert film and a stunt show. The linking thread between both aspects of the film is that Page is the cousin of a member of the rock band called Sorcery, which was a band in real life. While Grant Page works for a fictional television show in Los Angeles, he is hanging out with his cousin and the band in the studio and at gigs. Sorcery did put on a great show by featuring a magical fight between a wizard and the Devil taking place on stage. On paper the film should not work, but Trenchard-Smith, who began his media career as a news editor, had the skills to put everything together into a somewhat cohesive, yet still ridiculous, film. Probably best not too think too deeply about it, though.
May watch this for Cars day! Thanks for the inspiration!
DeleteWake in Fright (1971, dir. Ted Kotcheff)
ReplyDeleteAn Australian schoolteacher on his way to spend Christmas with his girlfriend in Sydney stays in a small outback town overnight, but that one night stretches into several as he loses his money gambling and sinks deeper and deeper into a drunken haze of self-destruction.
It's amazingly bleak, horrifying without actually being a horror movie. You can feel the heat and smell the sweat through the screen. The kangaroo hunting scene is tough to watch, mainly because it features actual kangaroos being killed, filmed during a real hunt. Gary Bond is excellent as the lead, but the star of the movie is Donald Pleasance as the manic, wild-eyed, perpetually inebriated town doctor.
A masterpiece of uncomfortable cinema!
First up an observation: its super early in Ozploit day and already theres reviews from several 'best of' the genre. man i dig my F This Gang!
ReplyDeleteRazorback (1984)
I was going to begin my review by stating this is one of the best Jaws ripoffs ive ever seen..but honestly thats too reductive. The movie is absolutely original. Therefore it is one of the best "Person V Nature" movies ive ever seen. I f@#$ing love it. The setting, the action, the characters. Its lean, mean, and a blast. Theres an early scene that is one of the most creative and brutal ive seen in a long time. There are human villains that make this more than just a killer Razorback flick. The finale is very well written as it ties so many things together. Check this one out...you wont be disappointed.
(Bonus suggestion: if you want to know more about this genre, i highly suggest the 2008 documentary "Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild Untold Story of Ozploitation". Have a pen and paper handy as, if you are like me, you'll come away with a long list of flicks to seek out!!!)
I was leaning road games or wake in fright after some middling letterboxed reviews, but you might have sold me.
DeleteThis was my pick for today too, and a first time watch.
DeleteI think it works so well because the real monster is Dicko. He was scarier than any monster boar.
But the surprise joy for me was Arkie Whiteley, the Gyro Captain’s girl from The Road Warrior. She was delightful and funny and sexy and believable. I just wish she had more to do at the end of the movie. She should have had a bigger career and a much longer life.
I watched Razorback for the first time as well. Blown away. Every aspect of this movie is excellent: directing, acting, writing, editing, score, design, etc, and is incredibly stylish. This is a masterpiece! I agree with Mashke the best Jaws rip-off I have seen and just an awesome movie.
Delete@Chris....holy cow....great observation about Arkie being in Road Warrior! I agree with you all around.
Delete@Matt...woot...welcome to the party pal.
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
ReplyDeleteFilling in my last remaining gap in the franchise.
I don’t know if this movie is more bad or more disappointing.
DeleteBack in 1985 we were expecting Fury Road but instead got a PG-13, four-quadrant, go for jokes, music-video theme song, Lord of the Flies mish mash, with a confusing Bruce Spence recasting and an unimpressive Wez knock-off.
Counterpoint its neither. bad or disappointing. I loved Dome as a kid. I still do. Yes it has issues and yeah the Bruce Spense recast confused me as a kid but the movie is still awesome. The Wez knock off I have less issues with because Miller lets you know from the first meeting this guy is not that threat. Lord Humoungus' army was a group of monsters held together by a scarier monster. This gang is a bunch of city workers lead by a politician playing tough to keep power.
DeleteSorry, that should read "I find its neither bad or disappointing"
Delete@Munkee I’m glad that it’s a movie you enjoy. And that’s an interesting take on it I’ve never considers, the minutia of city politics in the post-apocalypse. I haven’t rewatched it in at least 20-years. I even skipped it during the Max Mad Marathon at the New Bev last year. I should give it a rewatch.
DeleteRoad Games (1981)
ReplyDeleteSome dingoes steal babies. This one stole my damn heart.
as one who is usually a tad wordy in my reviews, i always appreciate brief and hilarious ones. (golf clap).
DeleteHaha. Thanks Mashke. (hang loose gesture)
DeleteMy first watch of the day and totally agree, Boz was a champ.
DeleteI'm also now trying to figure how to watch 17 Stacy Keach movies for the remainder of the month.
Bad Boy Bubby (1993)
ReplyDeleteI've wanted to see Bad Boy Bubby since June 17, 2009. Why do I know the exact date, you ask? That's when filmmaker Travis Betz recommended the movie on a now-defunct YouTube channel called The Rough Cuts. Remember those channels where each contributor was assigned a day of the week? For The Rough Cuts, a movie review channel, it was Coolduder on Monday, McGoiter on Tuesday, Travis Betz aka The Receptionist on Wednesday, K80Blog on Thursday, and ImJakeSrsly on Friday. I didn't need to look that up, I still remember it to this day. I watched religiously. So many of the movies recommended on that channel lived in a mental watchlist for a long time before I started keeping an actual list on Letterboxd. Some I've seen (Bad Ronald, Troll 2, Lo) since, while others (The Peanut Butter Solution, The Dark Backward, Crawlspace) still take up room on my watchlist.
I've tried Bad Boy Bubby many times over the years. It pops up on and quickly disappears from Tubi from time to time and just about every time I catch it, I turn it on. However, I've never been able to stomach it past the first ten minutes. This story, which Betz describes as what would happen if "Hal Ashby's Being There met Robert Zemeckis's Forrest Gump," is about a mentally stunted man who has been kept in captivity by his mother for over 30 years. The opening scenes alone feature incest, physical and mental abuse, and animal cruelty. Every time I've tried to turn it back on to muscle through, it has disappeared from Tubi.
Well, I decided to finally finish it for this Junesploitation. It does get decidedly less gross, but it's never less perverse. When Bubby does enter the world, people treat him like a freak, a pervert, and an amusement, while he rapes, murders, and learns nothing about himself or the world. It's a hard, humiliating watch. I'm glad I've finally finished it, if for no other reason that I won't feel the need to watch it again.
You're not alone. I can think of maybe 3 movies I wish I could un-see. This is one of them. Not that it is bad or without merit, I just wish it wasn't in my head. I guess that speaks to its power.
DeleteMoney Movers (1978, dir. Bruce Beresford).
ReplyDeleteHard as nails crime thriller about some attempts to steal money from a "Brinks" type security company. I don't remember who, but someone reviewed this last year and said it was the best thing they had seen all June. Well, they were right! This is the best movie I've seen all month. Thanks for the recommendation whoever you were. This is what Junesploitation is all about.
The Proposition (2005): with this movie, i learned that Guy Pearce was not American. He's not Australian either, but he plays one in movies 🤣 Anyway, it's a broody and dirty movie like all cool westerns should be. Written by genius musician Nick Cave, who also does the music. Tremendous cast too. First time watch in 15 years.
ReplyDeleteBonus Junesploitation movie, Detroit Rock City (1999): it's been a while since i saw it, but it's still fun. R&R High School was better though 😜
THE CHANT OF JIMMIE BLACKSMITH (1978)
ReplyDeleteFirst-time watch. Kino Blu. 9/10.
I think I first became aware of this flick when NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD came out. I've been sitting on the Blu for some time now. Wild flick. I watched the slightly longer Australian cut; no idea what's different between the two.
ROAD GAMES (1981)
ReplyDeleteA truck driver and a hitchhiker (Jamie Lee Curtis!) pursue a serial killer up and down the freeways. I liked this one a lot. In most horror/exploitation movies, the lengthy dialogue scenes are filler, but the dialogue in this movie is sharp and witty. I was so enjoying the characters just hanging out and talking that I almost forgot a killer was on the loose. Once the thrills kick it up in the third act, things got intense and Hitchcock-ish. Great movie!
INCIDENT AT RAVEN’S GATE (1988)
Okay, there’s this small-town farm run by a scientist and his punk-rockin’ younger brother, and then there’s a bunch of strange happenings around town. I don’t know. This one’s all about atmosphere, rather than a cohesive plot. It’s like Twin Peaks meets Repo Man meets X-Files meets Signs meets… Stephen King, maybe? I guess I enjoyed the movie, but don’t ask me to explain it.
Bonus Universal Monster-sploitation: GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942)
Here’s where the series turns away from horror and into full-on comic book sci-fi/action. It’s also where the filmmakers become obsessed with the idea of transplanting one person’s brain into someone else’s body. But I like bonkers sci-fi, so I can’t help but enjoy this broken sequel.
Outback Vampires(1987 Dir Colin Eggleston)
ReplyDeleteI had to tap out about 20 minutes into this one. I was watching was a VHS rip and the sound was too bad to make any dialogue out.
Sons of Steal (1988 Dir Gary L Keady)
Yep its another one of your standard comedy sci-fi, time travel action adventure, heavy metal musical. Rob Hartley the lead singer of the Australian metal band Black Alice stars as Black Alice, rockstar and leader of the pacifist organization. Octagon. whom ends up demolecularized, stored as a hologram, then revived in the future only to be sent back to the past to stop his groups nuclear weapons protest.
This movie is kind of batshit. The movie is insane, a jumble of plots, bad f/x, Hair metal and weird dialogue but its never boring. If it doesn't have midnight showings in Australia or didn't at least get a few in the 80s and 90s I'd be shocked.
Money Movers (1978)
ReplyDeleteChose this after reading Paul Calvert's comment--great recommendation!
There's plenty of stuff I like in the big bucket of gritty '70s crime flicks, but sometimes I bump up against the arty, contemplative '70s-ness of it all (is this an action movie, or an inaction movie, amirite?). Money Movers does not have that problem AT ALL. It's wall-to-wall criminal activity and plot intrigue, so propulsive that even though I only felt like I was ever tracking, at best, 75% of the story and characters, I was hooked the whole way through.
For the first hour of the movie, I kept seeing the brother character (who's only somewhere between the 4th and 10th most important character) and thinking he looked crazy familiar. I finally broke down and looked it up, and realized I knew him from Cocktail, a movie I've seen ONCE. The dude has a distinctive look/voice/vibe, I guess. Coughlin's Law: Hurry up on that roller door!
Super fun crime movie, and a perfect Junesploitation pick.
Razorback (1984)
ReplyDeletePiggybacking off the selection of several others (see what I did there?)...
Razorback is a little schizophrenic. It's a Jaws clone, except now it's Mad Max, and now it's Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, and now it's Salvador Dali's nightmare (honestly, I'd love to see a version of the movie that's fully committed to the surreal hallucinating-through-the-desert, hot-girl-with-a-boar's-face stuff). While the tonal shifts can be jarring at times, they never stop the movie from being entertaining. It also looks great, chock-full of signature shots of silhouettes against the incredible outback landscape. I thought the monster was handled pretty well, too, between the rumbly charging hog POV and the close-up practical effects that showed just enough of the big pig to look scary, and hid just enough to keep it from looking goofy.
Time to watch Reserved Seating!
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
ReplyDeleteWait, am I doing this right?
My girlfriend: Ozploitation? Like we're going to watch The Wizard of Oz?
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