Movie Review: Escape from the Bronx (1983)

When I first looked at the CD art on this I thought Jeff sent me Escape from NY. Okay. Maybe John Carpenter re-released it or something, wanted to get it back in front of the general population. I enjoy Kurt Russell. But on closer inspection I realized this is a film that obviously tried to cash in on the popularity of Snake Plisskin and his band of merry thugs (I mean, they had a character with an eye patch for crying out loud. AN EYE PATCH!)

Escape from the Bronx tells us the story of what a shit hole the Bronx is and some douchebag CEO of the GC Corporation wants to raze it to the ground then rebuild all of New York with nicer housing and no crime. Riiiiiight. How can this guy run an entire company and be so fucking stupid at the same time?

The gubmint assures everyone that they will receive alternative accommodations, better than what they have now, in beautiful New Mexico. Why they have to go live all the way across the country is unclear. As you can imagine, some people are pissed and don’t want to leave. Well, too bad for you because if you don’t get out when they ask nicely, you are fried up extra crispy via the flame throwers carried by the DAS - Disinfestation Annihilation Squad.

Wow. They don’t even PRETEND to sugar coat it, do they? Though I can appreciate their honesty.

Meet Trash, one of these stubborn tried and true New Yawkers (played by Marco DiGregorio from Rome, Italy - I wonder if he’s related to Cha Cha?). He and a bunch of other folks live in the tunnels under the city, lead by Dablone. He thinks the death squads are too chicken to come down and run them out so he does nothing to fight back. But after Trash’s parents are murdered, he enlists the help of a plucky journalist, Moon Grey (who has been trying to get the truth out to the rest of the country about all the bat shit craziness) and a former bank robber, Strike, to kidnap the CEO of GC Corp which will in turn force the government to negotiate terms.

Franco Prosperi's MEET HIM AND DIE is Coming Soon From Raro!!

Raro Video Will Release Franco Prosperi's MEET HIM AND DIE, the hard-hitting Italian police thriller starring Ray Lovelock (Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man) and Elke Sommer (Lisa and the Devil).
Available on Blu-ray and DVD on April 1st in digitally remastered edition including a video introduction by Mike Malloy (Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films That Ruled the '70s) and a fully illustrated booklet with notes on the film. 

NEW YORK, NY- MARCH 3, 2014 - Raro Video is proud to announce the Blu-ray and DVD release of Franco Prosperi's MEET HIM AND DIE, a rare gem of the poliziotteschigenre starring Ray Lovelock (Fiddler on the Roof; Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man), Elke Sommer (Lisa and the Devil, A Shot in the Dark), and Martin Balsam (Psycho, Cape Fear).

Movie Review: Fernando Di Leo - The Italian Crime Collection Volume Two (Blu-ray)

To many Italian action enthusiasts, Fernando Di Leo is the best when it comes to crafting the perfect polizia or crime film. Raro Video released the popular box-set on Blu-ray with Fernando Di Leo: The Italian Crime Collection - Volume One a little over a year ago. Naturally, there had to be another release with more films as this master of Italian cult cinema had some other gems in his filmography, most notably, Naked Massacre, The Kidnap Syndicate and one of his finest creations, Shoot First, Die Later.
 

Shoot First, Die Later centers on Domenico Malacarene (Luc Merenda, Torso) a not-so squeaky clean cop who lives slightly better than his fellow officers because he accepts money from the city's crime syndicate. Outside from a little corruption here and there, Domenico actually seems like a regular guy who likes to spend time with his girlfriend, Sandra (Delia Boccardo, Massacre in Rome). The only problem here is he gets way in over his head. His father also works in the police department but doesn't quite dabble in these illicit affairs.

Movie Review: Crime of Love, aka Delitto d'amore (1974)

Review by Greg Goodsell

Despite its ties to Italy's high fashion industry, the city of Milan is an unremittingly bleak industrial stretch of real estate. Tourists to Italy are routinely warned away from visiting there, but it is at one of Milan's many factories that two young people of highly divergent backgrounds meet and fall in love. He, Nullo (Giuliano Gemma) is pragmatic, political and intellectual, a product of a strong northern Italian family. She, Carmella (Stefania Sandrelli) is a passionate, flighty girl, the product of a desperately poor southern Italian family who has migrated to Milan in search of work. The two don't exactly “meet cute.” Nullo confronts Carmela at the time clock when he spots her fleeing the factory in tears. Carmella later confesses that she was crying because she knew that Nullo would never fall in love with her. Despite this unpromising beginning, the two fall desperately in love amidst all the carbon emissions of the perpetually clanging factory.

Buy Crime of Love on DVD

Movie Review: Monamour/ Kick The Cock (Blu-ray, 2005, 2010)

Before I start my review of Cult Epics' Blu-ray release of Tinto Brass' Monamour and Kick The Cock I'd like to open with a quote from a very famous musical artist : "I like big butts and I cannot lie" ~ Sir Mix-A-Lot. Yes, it's true, I do, and that's why the Picasso of the Posterior, Tinto Brass ( Salon Kitty, Cheeky, Caligula) is one of my heroes. Cult Epics has taken the time and effort to put some of Tinto's finer more recent efforts in Hi-Definition. Here's a look at their two-disc Blu-ray release of Monamour and Kick The Cock.

Get Monamour and Kick the Cock 2-Disc Blu-ray

Movie Review: Alien from the Deep (2011, One 7 Movies)

One 7 Movies bring Antonio Margheriti's fun Alien rip-off to DVD for the first time!


Buy Alien from the Deep on DVD


 Film: 2/5

As everyone knows, the 80's were the Italian's golden age of trash cinema. From splatter classics to Hollywood rip-offs, they knew how to make some damn entertaining films. Alien and it's action packed sequel Aliens are two flicks that seem to spawn hundreds of copycats. Alien from the Deep, if you didn't guess, is one of the spawn of those hundred copycats. Despite being slower than a Power Loader for the first 40 mins or so, AftD is exactly what you would expect from Margheriti....schlocky fun.

Movie Review: La Rabbia (1963)

Directed by Pier Palo Pasolini and Giovanni Guareschi

“Why are our lives characterized by discontent, anguish, and fear?” Why, I didn’t know they were! I thought life was characterized by the pursuit of money, the pursuit of shelter, the pursuit of pleasure … maybe that’s why our lives are characterized by discontent, anguish, and fear. The above question was posed to both leftist, communist, gay film director Pier Paolo Pasolini and right-wing essayist and occasional filmmaker Giovanni Guareschi in 1963. Both Italian filmmakers were given miles of black-and-white newsreel footage to craft an answer to that question, as well as formulate an answer. The results -- La Rabbia, or "The Anger" -- are fascinating to say the least, a scorching mondo documentary for the intellectual, where existential philosophy is proffered instead of the expected shots of native tribesmen shoving their heads up cows’ asses.

Buy La Rabbia on DVD

Movie Review: Sex, Demons and Death (aka Diabolicamente... Letizia, 1975)

I'm not exactly sure what to think of Sex, Demons and Death. At the start of the movie, a guy that looks like a better looking Mick Jagger talks to his wife over the phone, and you learn that she can't have kids. They decide to let the wife's niece move in as she promised her dead sister that she would take care of the orphan. When the husband, known as the architect, picks up the niece, Letizia, the pervy uncleness begins.

Buy Sex, Demons and Death on DVD

Movie Review: Exotic Malice (1981)

In previous reviews of Joe D'Amato's films, I've professed great admiration for the Italian king of Euro-sleaze. Don't get me wrong, some of his films are absolute shit and tremendously boring (See Sexy Pirates) but even the most watery of D'Amato's turds contain some elements to please cinematic sadists - like myself - to relish. Exotic Malice is yet another rare filthy pastaland porno from Joe that was made around the same time he did Sex and Black Magic and Porno Holocaust. Porno actor, Mark Shannon, often appeared in D'Amato's early 80's sex films - here though he's the star along with Anthropophagous himself, George Eastman. Shannon's famous for blowing loads but infamous for performing in sex scenes with a horrible case of genital warts on his sack. The infamous warts are unfortunately present here in Exotic Malice. Does that ruin the film? Let's have a look.

Buy Exotic Malice on DVD

Movie Review: Adua and Her Friends (1960, Raro Video)

By Greg Goodsell
(aka ADUA E LE COMPAGNE)

Directed by Antonio Pietrangeli

Buy Adua & Her Friends (Adua e Le Compagne) on DVD

Simone Signoret plays the title role of Adua, a mother hen to a trio of fellow prostitutes Lolita (Sandra Milo), Marilian (Emmanuelle Riva) Milly (Gina Rovere). Turned out of their brothel with the enacting of the Merlin Law of 1959 that closed all such establihments in Rome, the four try to make a go of it by opening a restaurant in the country. Pooling their savings together to rent a long disused building, they fall short and call on a wealthy former John, Dr. Ercoli (perpetual Italian bad guy Claudio Gora) to finance their business venture. He agrees, but stipulates that for the frist few months the restaurant must not engage in any shady activities -- until he says otherwise, the four women paying him an exorbitant monthly fee in the process. The restaurant at first is a success. Auda begins a fling with playboy Piero (perpetual Italian romantic foil Marcello Mastroianni), Milly first rebuffs and then accepts a proposal of marriage from a straight-arrow customer and Marlina brings her estranged young son to live briefly in her new "family" environment. However -- their male dominated society won't let the girls get on with their lives, and all their hard work and dreams come crashing to the ground. The ladies, without a roof over their head as decreed by law, must now take to the streets ...

Movie Review: Shadow (2009, MPI/IFC Films)

By Greg Goodsell

Directed by Federico Zampaglione

Brevity, they say, is the soul of wit. The chief virtue of the latest Italian Gothic Shadow is its brevity, running a tight 77 minutes. Director Federico Zampaglione recognizes that his film is composed of overly familiar elements, and as such, rushes his characters and storyline off the stage as soon as possible.

Buy Shadow on DVD

We first meet our hero David (Jake Muxworthy), a U.S. serviceman in a voiceover as he composes a letter to his mother. Wearying of combat duty in Iraq , he tells her that he is anxious to go on a mountain biking trip in a remote stretch of Europe . The action then switches to the countryside, where he meets a lovely young woman (Karina Testa) as well as two bullying louts (Chris Coppola, Ottviano Blitch) that after an altercation in a tavern, begin to aggressively stalk him on the lonely mountain roads. The film then takes a turn for the surreal when the three of them are captured by a hideous, epicene figure listed in the credits as “Mortis” (Nuot Arquint) who takes them to a woebegone, isolated compound for a series of grueling tortures. There are attempts at escape, David breaks free – only to stun the audience with a surprise, shock conclusion.

Movie Review: Bay of Blood (aka Twitch of the Death Nerve)

Stop me if you've heard this one: Some teens head to the woods to party, take a dip in the lake, have wild sex, and are subsequently hunted down and killed by a machete-welding maniac. Sound familiar? Well, it should - it's only the plot of every "Dead kids in the woods" movie since Madman and Friday the 13th.

It's also one of the bloody set pieces in Mario Bava's classic Italian giallo/horror film "Bay of Blood", AKA "Twitch of the Death Nerve". Almost a full decade before the the 80s slasher films exploded with tits and gore, Bava was inventing the tropes that would bring the horror genre the most attention it had received - both wanted and unwanted - since the Universal Horror Monsters took center stage.

Buy Bay of Blood on DVD!