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Showing posts from June, 2017

Grindhouse (2007)

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Over the years, due to rising prices, the declining quality of movies and, honestly, lack of time, I have begun to see movies in the theater less and less.  I still enjoy going out for the monthly Cult Classics shows we have in Arizona, as well as seeing the some of the newer movies after being assured that I'm not just flushing my money away. I think Gindhouse may have been the only movie I saw at a theater in 2007, for a combination of the above reasons and also the fact that I was in extreme pain in my lower right back.  I would love to say seeing this movie was what finally cured me, but it's more truthful to say that I was willing to sit through the whole thing despite of it (it was moving apartments which, somehow, fixed things; I guess whatever got displaced slipped back after hauling my record collection up stairs once again). I have always liked cult films, so to have Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino (as well as a number of other directors doing the fake tr

Disco Godfather (1979)

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Coming across a Rudy Ray Moore movie unknowingly is a mixed bag.  At the time of viewing this, the only one I had seen was The Human Tornado, which struck me as somebody's vanity project.   Dolemite will get watched and reviewed here at some point, but, for me, a little of his "acting" goes a long way. After watching Disco Godfather , though, I realized how important he was, silly movies aside.  His status in the African-American community at the time this movie was made puts it into much more perspective. Tucker Williams (Moore) is an ex-cop that has opened the Blueberry Hill Disco and become the Disco Godfather.  A local celebrity and DJ, his club is now the most renowned in the city, and it understandably draws both good and bad elements.  The bad elements are pushing PCP to the inner city youth, a fact that Williams becomes aware of when his nephew Buck (Julius Carry), an up-and-coming basketball star, freaks out in his club and has to be hospitalized. William

Not of This Earth (1988)

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In the late 1980s direct Jim Wynorski bet Roger Corman that he could remake the 1957 movie Not of This Earth  for the same budget (adjusted for inflation) and on the same time scale.  I have no idea who won the bet, but what resulted was the same movie, except with more modern dialogue and references, as well as a good deal of nudity. To promote it, Traci Lords, fresh off her scandal of making a series of adult movies while underage, was cast in the lead. An alien (Arthur Roberts) travels to Earth and hides under the name of Mr. Johnson.  When he seeks help for his blood condition from Dr. Rochelle (Ace Mask), he decides to hire nurse Nadine Story (Lords) to attend him privately for twice-daily blood transfusions.  Through mind control, he sets Dr. Rochelle on the path of trying to find him a cure, while being unable to tell anyone about Mr. Johnson's strange nature. Transfusions are not enough, and Mr. Johnson finds himself going around town to get the blood of animals and

Starcrash (1978)

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I remember back when I was a kid and Knight Rider was in its first run that I noticed Starcrash playing on the late show.  Even at that age I recognized it for what it was, and barely got through five minutes before shutting it off.  Needless to say, the reason I was even curious was because of David Hasselhoff, and I never even made it to any of his parts.  I also never made it to Caroline Munro in a leather bikini, which may have changed my mind at that point if I did.  Over the years I have seen this come up in many lists of bad movies that just have to be seen.  I finally got around to watching the whole thing and, as my luck would have it, right when it was coming up (unbeknownst to me) as an episode on the new Mystery Science Theater 3000 .  Needless to say, they had a great time with it, and it was one of the highlights of the new season. Stella Starr (Munro) and her navigator Akton (Marjoe Gortner) are fleeing from Imperial police when they come across an Imperial laun