SAVAGES

Another MAD movie this time from the sometimes psychedelic world of Oliver Stone who brought you Natural Born Killers Platoon Wall street films JFK just to name a few. From the book by Don Winslow Oliver stone brings you SAVAGES his new crime thriller about three entrepreneurs’ who run a lucrative homegrown industry producing the best product ever sold in there beach community in southern California. Ex Seal and natural born killer (if you will pardon the punt) Chon Taylor Kitch (Battleship) and Ben a marijuana business specialist both share there undying love for Ophelia Blake Lively (Green Lantern) who has never looked better I might add is picked up by a very nasty Mexican Baja Cartel that is applying pressure to get the team to join them in business an offer shall we say they can not refuse. Great cast assembled here also starring in very intimidating ruthless performances Benicio Deltoro (Traffic, Sin City) as lado the enforcer and Selma Hayek (Desperado) as Elena head of the cartel. After a two year hiatus John Travolta (From Paris With Love, Pulp Fiction) is back playing a dirty DEA agent with his own agenda. As usual John Travolta brings his own manner of cool suave presence to the film. I feel today’s younger audience is going to identify with love aspects to this storey line as well as the older generation will enjoy the kick ass mayhem as well that Oliver Stone knows how to bring and the actors all play there roles very convincingly in this new stylish crime thriller what the storey line is lacking the charecters make it worth watching. A five star MAD movie.

completed Nov 18th

Sinister

Ultimately one of the most frightening movies in recent history lots of crazy intense suspense in this storey of a writer who is a true-crime author who found footage of the family that was murdered in his new home however this discovery puts his family in danger of an ancient supernatural evil entity.  The home movies he finds are chilling and disturbing very nicely done to create horrifying images you will not forget. Moment to moment suspense will keep you watching waiting in anticipation and maybe fear of what could possibly happen next should you close your eyes should you keep them open? You decide if your nerves can take it or if you will be sleeping with the lights on after this MAD movie.  Brilliant acting by star Ethan Hawke who is convincing that his “Reality Bites” in this film his character thrown in a small splash of humor just a little which even the most serious of horror films needs. Juliet Rylance plays his very concerned wife and two kids played by Clair Foley and Michael D.Addario who turn in outstanding performances. James Ransone (Prom Night) plays a sympathetic police officer and veteran actor Fred Dalton Thompson (Die hard 2) plays a local sheriff.  From producer Jason Blum of the Paranormal Activity films and Insidious Sinister is by far the superior film of the bunch.  Directed by Scott Derrickson (the Exorcism of Emily Rose) and here is a fun fact Vincent D’Onofrio who co starred with Ethan Hawke in The Newton Boys and Staten Island, Brooklyn’s Finest has a small role. A five star MAD MOVIE!

The Campaign - It’s time for a new review

The Campaign is truly the funniest of funny films of this year. Will Ferrell, who you loved in Anchorman and Old School, is back!  This time a politician!  Well, need I say more?  This is another masterpiece from Will Farrell who is at his zaniest.  American politics - what an easy but fun target as the punch line of this film.  It’s a great cast including Zach Galifinakis (who I don’t think is acting but that’s just my opinion of him - after all, how many morons can you play in a lifetime, right?  But he still makes you laugh I must say.)  Also co-starring Jason Sudeikis of Hall Pass and Horrible Bosses Dylan McDermott (The Messengers), Katherine LaNasa (Valentine’s Day),  John Lithgow (Third Rock From the Sun, Footloose) Brian Cox (The Bourne Identity) and who could miss Canada’s own Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters, Coneheads)?  Look for cameos by Bill Maher, Wolf Blitzer, Mike Mizanin and several others. This film takes several shots at American politics and does it well, depicting our society of social networking and media manipulation - not a far cry from the truth.  Here is a fun fact: Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow play brothers, in separate projects they have played aliens (Aykroyd in Coneheads and Lithgow in 3rd Rock From the Sun). Brilliantly directed by Jay Roach, who also directed the Austin Powers films; it’s guaranteed to make you laugh yourself silly.  Zach Galifinakis should do some real acting, if they make a Deliverance remake, and squeal like a pig…………….you know what I am talking about.  Truly a MAD Movie.

Spider Baby or the The Maddest Story Ever Told - 1964

Spider Baby is the cult classic directorial debut  of film maker Jack Hill, aka The Maddest Storey Ever Told or Cannibal Orgy.  Yes that’s right, they even get mentioned in the opening song.  This is the ultimate Mad Movie in my opinion.  Words like weird, sick and outlandish have been used to describe it. So here we have the last generation of the degenerate, inbred Merrye family living with the inherited curse of a disease that causes them to mentally regress from the age of 10 or so on as they continue to develop physically.  The children are cared for by the family chauffeur played by Lon Chaney Jr. (The Haunted Palace) who plays the role like the veteran horror movie actor he is.  We start out with a cameo by Mantan Moreland (veteran comedy actor) who pops up long enough to get himself killed.  It is Moreland’s character who brings us to the house inhabited by the Merrye family, along with a few other oddities and surprises.  What a creepy twisted haunted house movie; no one had ever saw a movie like it at the time.  Due to its subject matter - not to mention subtitles - this one sat on the shelf a long time before released in to theaters.  What a great cast starring Chaney Jr., Carol Ohmart (House on Haunted Hill), Quinn Redeker (Ordinary People), Beverly Washburn ( Old Yeller, and later starred in Hill’s Pit Stop) and  the late Jill Banner in her film debut turning in a stunningly creepy and somewhat sexy performance if you can imagine that!  Also features Sid Haig, who starred in Hill’s student film The Host, Mary Mitchel (Dementia 13), Karl Schanzer (Dementia 13) and Mantan Moreland who has been a character actor or comedian since the early 30's.  Hill was conflicted as to the title so it is known as Spider Baby and The Maddest Story Ever Told at the same time.  The DVD release features never before seen footage - obviously cinemas were too sensitive and the world was just not ready for Spider Baby back in its day.  But it is greatly appreciated by me and I think it is truly one of the MADest movies of all time.  MAD movie goers will enjoy this five star MAD movie.

Here are some fun facts: Chaney sang the opening song and this movie had to wait 33 years before it was released to cinemas in the UK...wow, big surprise.  It did however finally get released in North America in January of 1968, still a long to wait for film lovers of this weird genre...you know who you are.
 

Pit Stop 1967

Race fans will love Pit Stop! The tag line appropriately reads “crash-o-rama !” for this tense tale set against the backdrop of the auto-racing world. Figure 8 racing! Writer and director Jack Hill (Spider Baby) himself said it looked like suicide racing and what’s better than an all-American racing movie? A great love triangle, a living-on-the-edge story line and throw in the death defying racing which was actual footage he recorded. This cult classic stars acting legend Brian Donlevy in his last acting role as well as Dick Davalos (East of Eden), Ellen Burstyn (The Exorcist), Sid Haig (Spider Baby), Beverly Washburn (Spider Baby) and her brother George Washburn. This movie was shot in black and white and this was the end of the black and white era. Jack Hill commented in an interview that he did that so the smoky race tracks could be better viewed and not look so clouded. Fun fact: actor Sid Haig plays a race champion but in actual reality, at that time he could not drive. Look sharp for Director Jack Hill in a bit role presenting a trophy and actor Titus Moede, an underground film maker, can be glimpsed twice in the same scene - a slight editing error which Hill laughed about later in an interview with Johnny Legend. Race fans will love this movie, after all what’s not to love about fast cars and hot women in this very entertaining film? A MAD movie indeed.

Two Lane Blacktop

That's right - the 1971 muscle car movie of the year. "Esquire" director Monte Hellman brings you the classic drag racing drifter film. A Pontiac GTO and a 55 Chevy battle across the back roads of America for possession of each other’s "pinks." Car hops will enjoy this VERY rare film and film buffs who enjoyed Director Monte Hellman's pictures (The Shooting, Flight to Fury and producer of Reservoir Dogs) you know who you are and why you love this type of film. It also dates back to a time of other muscle car films Vanishing Point, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, Gone in 60 Seconds (the original) and Mad Max. Yeah, you know the classic cool stuff. This film stars singer song writer James Taylor and Beach Boys’ Dennis Wilson in their only film roles and Warren Oates (Dillinger, The Wild Bunch ). Rip Roaring Fun!!!!!!!!!! Five Mad Movie Stars.

Switchblade Sisters 1975

Jack Hill’s Switchblade Sisters is a MAD MOVIE MUST SEE for his fans.  Seriously, what’s not to love about this?  Did you know Jack Hill interviewed girls from actual girl gangs at the time?  The idea of a movie about girl gangs seemed preposterous whether they were beauties or not. I am happy to say most of the female persuasion in this film are very easy to look at and exciting too.  It stars Robbie Lee (Big Bad Mama) as cute as she is dangerous, Joanne Nail (Full Moon High) as the new girl on the street falling into dangerous territory with the outrageous gang of hoodlums, and Monica Gayle as a somewhat loyal second in charge.  Co-starring is Asher Brauner, Kitty Bruce, Janice Karman (voices the chipmunks in Alvin and the Chipmunks), Marlene Clark (Sanford and Son), Don Stark (That 70s Show) and Bob Minor (The Swinging Cheerleaders).  You are in for some trashy fun as this film has a mix of sex, jealousy and hot women brandishing blades and guns - Get ready for a wild time.  Robbie Lee stands out giving a MAD performance as the vicious gang leader.  This in my opinion was the peak of her short career.  MAD Movie fans of the genre can thank Quentin Tarantino for releasing this film several years ago on VHS and DVD with his Rolling Thunder Pictures.  He adds his personal intro and closing comments before and after the film with a history lesson on Jack Hill films.  This is a five star MAD movie MUST SEE.  

The Swinging Cheerleaders 1974

Director Jack Hill (Coffy) is at it again! This time it’s his first picture since breaking free from B-movie producer Roger Corman, who produced some of Jack Hill’s earlier work such as The Big Doll House, The Big Bird Cage, Coffy and Foxy Brown. This time Hill presents the film under his own company name Centaur Release.  Jo Johnston, Rainbeaux Smith, Colleen Camp and Rosanne Katon are the hot beauties starring in this hilarious tale of campus life. A reporter for the campus paper The Underground goes undercover to expose female exploitation in their contemporary society.  She finds out she is in over her head/covers (however you look at it) in this world of pompoms and blockhead jocks where corruption ensues.  Welcome to the drive-in era - one of the 70’s greatest subversive favorites. The Swinging Cheerleaders fits in to the B-movie category but it is a fun movie to watch and the girls are easy to look at.  Playboy Playmate Rosanne Katon (Bachelor Party), Colleen Camp (Wayne’s World, Die Hard With A Vengeance) the late Rainbeaux (Cheryl) Smith (Caged Heat) and Jo Johnston never acted again.  Also co-starring Ric Carrott, Ian Sander and Bob Minor (Foxy Brown, Coffy).  This one is very rare.  True fans of Jack Hill’s daring film making will enjoy………you know who you are.

Coffy is the movie one must see! it is in a class all by its self

Revenge genre fans will love Coffy.  Pam Grier (The Big Bird Cage) is at her best as a ruthless yet sexy avenger out to seek justice for her little sister who is overdosed by the greedy drug pushers and pimps. This 1973 revenge movie was truly one of the first of its kind. What stands out to me is the style and suave of each character in the movie with their own sense of cool. Pam Grier’s character Coffy is super cool and bad ass all in one and VERY sexy. Co-starring  Booker Bradshaw, Robert Doqui and Alan Arbus, with a stand out performance by Sid Haig (The Big Bird Cage) as Omar. It should be duly noted that this film inspired Quentin Tarantino, who we all know, and it is interesting to watch the characters and compare the dialogue to that of Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs.  Each one has a style all their own that makes each a standout so that you can’t wait to see how they end up. Some may call Coffy a “sexploitation movie “; I strongly disagree. Director Jack Hill (The Big Bird Cage, The Big Doll House) is best known for these works with Pam Grier - the movie Foxy Brown would follow a year later.   Jack Hill directed these and others that I will soon post as well.  Coffy is a must see if you are a fan of Quentin Tarantino and possibly his mentor (weather he knew it or not) Jack Hill.  I give this one five MAD stars.  Fans of the genre…you know who you are.   

TARGETS

TARGETS (1968) is the subject today - a look back at the directorial debut of Peter Bogdanovich (the Last Picture Show). This film was a shocker then but even more relevant now by today's standards of “oh my god look at what he just did!” type of movies. Movie icon Boris Karloff stars in one of his last major studio performances as an aging horror film star conflicted with thoughts of retirement as his young assistants and screen writers try to talk him out it. A parallel story shows an apparently average young man (played by Tim O'Kelly) accumulating an arsenal of rifles before embarking on a horrific shooting spree. The separate plots ultimately converge, culminating in a shattering climax at a drive-in theatre. This one is a MAD cult classic in my opinion as it shows how calculating the villain is and how real the hero/main character is. The movie co-stars Nancy Hsuer and Peter Bogdanovich in an unaccredited role, and look for Frank Marshal as a ticket boy - he would later produce over 90 major motion pictures in Hollywood - Indiana Jones and Back to the Future just to name a few. Also look for Mike Farrell (MASH) as the phone booth victim and Gary Kent - B-movie actor/stuntman of the 60's and 70's. Some say Randy Quaid, better known as cousin Eddie in the National Lampoon Vacation movies, appeared in his first ever film role as an early victim. Is it him? In my opinion, yes. Other’s will argue he could have used a stage name for the credit. A MAD movie indeed but that's what I like about it as will fans of the genre. Truly one of a kind classic and those who agree…you know who you are.