Milk my Snake: The Anaconda Franchise

The news are all over the internet that the Lake Placid and the Anaconda franchises (that have produced four films each) will mash-up for a crossover flick, and I just realized that although I’m a big fan of the former four movies, I had not seen the later four. Well, I could not go see the upcoming movie without knowing the absolutely important stories that preceded it so here I am reviewing these snake oddities.

Anaconda (1997)

The first 35mm film reel I ever got my hands on was the trailer for Anaconda (1997) which was given to me by one of the best tutors I had back when I was a student at the film school. I still don’t know what to do with it since I don’t have a film projector, but I hold on to the item because of the sentimental value that it has for me.

I remember that it was a big deal when Anaconda (1997) opened in the movie theaters here in Greece, and it was even a big event when it was broadcasted for the first time on television. Well, it cost $45 million to make, and people in the late ‘90s seemed to not know how unoriginal it was [Jaws (1975) was made more than two decades old and popcorn audiences have proven to not know their film history] and as a result it grossed more than $136 million world-wide.

Movie Review: Open Relationship (Digital Playground - 2015)

Reviewed by: Rick L. Blalock   - December 1, 2015

Starring :
Romi Rain
Alix Lynx
Eva Lovia
Josie Jagger
Reena Sky
Staci Carr
Danny Mountain
John Strong
Ryan Driller
Seth Gamble
Toni Ribas

Synopsis
Maggie (Romi Rain) and Roger (Danny Mountain) are a sex-crazed married couple... but there is more to their marriage than what meets the eye. After a fulfilling day of separate sexcapades, the duo reunites at an erotic party, and their evening culminates in a surprise climax.

(Runtime - 3 hr. 49 mins.)
———————

In this new DIGITAL PLAYGROUND release, titled OPEN RELATIONSHIP, the story centers around married couple Roger and Maggie.  They are a couple, that despite having a good relationship, neither one of them are exactly satisfied sexually.  Because of this, the couple openly pursues other avenues for sex.  Roger finds fulfillment at his workplace with a co-worker, while Maggie, seems to find the same in a strapping young college student.  However, for as much as they do knowingly stray outside their marriage, their sexual liaisons don't end there, as you can likely find both of them at local masquerade sex parties.  It is at such party that things end up, where the husband and wife dare to explore the boundaries of their sexuality.  Of course, this is all before going home to each other at the end of the night, having no guilt on their conscience.

Cinema Head Cheese: Podshort! - Road Hard (2015)

Kevin Moyers and Sam Poe discuss Adam Carolla's new movie about a comedian returning to the road.

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Cinema Head Cheese: Podshort! - The Babadook (2014)

Peggy Christie delivers a twenty minute review of the recent horror film, The Babadook. Complete with shuffling noises and a quick rager about computers.

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Movie Review: Atari: Game Over (2014)

When I was a kid, video games made their mark in a huge way. I always loved going to arcades and dumping quarter after quarter into anything from Pac-Man to Gauntlet to Tron to Spy Hunter. Arcade games were found in bowling alleys, convenience stores, laundromats and, of course, stand alone arcades. To have the opportunity to bring these things home was a godsend to a kid like me. The first company to build a system for these games was Atari, and there was a 2600 in thousands of lucky homes. For some reason, Atari died off and was usurped by Nintendo, Sega and other systems. Most of the blame, until now, has been thrown onto one infamous game based on a favorite movie alien.

A legend has floated around for years that after the dismal failure of Atari's E.T. game, they buried millions of copies in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Director Zak Penn decided to investigate this claim, along with the entire story of the rise and fall of Atari. The company started simply enough with Pong. If you don't remember Pong, it was a very simple paddle game that resembled tennis. More games were created with the same simple 8-bit technology, and new designers joined the fold. Howard Scott Warshaw was one of them. He was the creator of the popular Yar's Revenge, which hosted the very first Easter egg in gaming history.

Movie Review: Under Fire (1983)

Directed by Roger Spottiswoode

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell


Nicaragua, 1979: The populace is under the iron-fisted rule of President Anastasio Somoza. Photographer Russell Price (Nick Nolte) is on the scene to capture scenes of the burgeoning civil war for the American mainstream media. It’s not all work and no play. Price has his eye on the gorgeous journalist Claire (Joanna Cassidy) who’s in the process of breaking up with the egotistical Alex Grazier (Gene Hackman), indifferent to the death and upheaval around him as he plots his career as a news anchor. The trio is pulled into the conflict when it becomes obvious that they can’t remain neutral to the fascistic forces of Somoza and the Sandinista rebels. Throwing their purported, professional objectivity into bold relief are the actions of cheerfully amoral mercenary soldier Oates (George Romero discovery Ed Harris), who guns down unarmed civilians for quick cash. Using his photographic skills to prolong the rebel’s efforts, Price and his friends face an even bigger quandary: Are they merely unseating the old boss, who in the words of The Who, “is same as the old boss?”

Movie Review: Riff Raff (1991) and Raining Stones (1993) (Twilight Time)

Honestly, fellas, I don’t know how well I can review these two movies. For one, they aren’t typically what I enjoy watching. Sure, a human interest/drama/comedy film can be interesting or at least, entertaining (like Philomena or Lizzie Borden Took an Axe). But for another reason, I couldn’t understand 98% of what these fookers were going on about in the films. The heavy cockney British accents DO NOT make for easy listening. So I gleaned what I could from every 100th word I caught and the accompanying acting. Here goes nothing.

Riff Raff and Raining Stones are two films from Ken Loach. Apparently, he’s well known for creating movies about the poor/working class and their struggles with every day life, particularly during political change.

Riff  Raff focuses on Stevie (a very young Robert Carlysle whose Scottish brogue is near impossible to translate), a drifter who finds work at a construction site. He squats in a nearby empty apartment, with the help of a few of his coworkers. The construction site has appalling safety conditions: read none at all. Anyone who brings that up is immediately sacked. 

Stevie meets Susan, a lacking in talent singer but they hit it off. After moving in with him, he learns she’s a druggie. Maybe something you could have learned if you knew each other AT ALL before moving in together. After that relationship falls apart, one of Stevie’s coworkers dies on site. The obvious reaction to that is for Stevie and his buddy to burn the location down.

The Dirty Harry Films: Do you feel lucky punk?

I was recently reading Robert Greysmith’s books on the Zodiac killings [Zodiac & Zodiac Unmasked] and got so fascinated by the story that I watched Zodiac (2007), even though I don’t like David Fincher’s movies (and this was not an exception). Anyway, the meat of the story was that this person was killing just for the hell of it!

A few years ago I had seen The Zodiac Killer (1971). I still have the Something Weird DVD, but I didn’t revisit it, as I don’t remember it being particularly special. But I read that Dirty Harry (1971) was based on the real life murderer and chief investigator, and since it is one of those films that you have to see (because everybody has), I decided to not only give it a go, but review the entire franchise that was build on the success of the first movie. After all I love Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone’s westerns, so how wrong could I go?

The Dirty Harry films are action cinema masterpieces and should be praised as such. They may seem a bit problematic today as the cop worshiping scenario looks occasionally cheesy or at least dated, but they work perfectly as escapism adventures.

The Dirty Harry films proved very successful at the box office (well, not the last flick in the franchise, but the first four). Every Dirty Harry flick was made by a different director. Those five were Don Siegel [Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)], Ted Post [Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)], James Fargo [Caravans (1978)], Buddy Van Horn [Pink Cadillac (1989)], and star Clint Eastwood.