Movie Review: Three Ripening Cherries (1979) and Sensual Fire (1982)

Directed by Carlos Tobalina

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Desperately plain girls buried under makeup. Ugly wallpaper, sheets and tablecloths. Nonexistent stories about sex in San Francisco. We are back on director Carlos Tobalina’s turf, friends.

Three Ripening Cherries finds Mom (Kitty Shayne) talking to four girls at the kitchen table about sex. Mom admits that her first time was not pleasurable. A bearded friend of the family sought to be the one take away her troublesome cherry, and in a flashback, aforementioned creep forces himself on her to her cries of pain and distress. Mom sought to make amends by sleeping with every high school greaser in the process in order to get her groove back.

Movie Review: Surreal Sicko/Metalheads (2012, Bill Zebub Productions)

...stepping outside the box for a moment, so to speak, this viewer cannot help but express appreciation for the occasional 'curve ball', thrown my way, with regards to the eclectic variety of films, which are laid out before me, to review; proving an exercise in literary prowess, time and time again, it has taken a respectable amount of objectivity and open-mindedness, in critiquing such films...with a good measure of dedication towards...for good, or for bad, no matter what the subject matter is, or how it is presented...conceiving of what the filmmaker possibly wanted to do or say, with regards to the film, or films in question. With that deftly said, let's move on to yet another one of those 'curve balls', shall we?? And from the looks of things, this one ain't gonna be pretty...

...considering the minimal premise associated with "Surreal Sicko", this ready-steady viewer feels inclined to unconventionally portion, or ration out the threadbare storyline, get right to the heart...or rather, 'meat' of the matter, and pick up the pieces, with regards to premise, as things progress. Of course, taking into account, the exploitatively striking and lurid title of these proceedings, the harrowing synopsis of these affairs (...i.e.,  'a landlord takes advantage of a tenant who is haunted by visions and suffers from mental illness and goes on a rape spree and makes him his scapegoat'), the DVD cover photo shots...even the initially numbing effect of the film, itself, post-viewing...this viewer admittedly had initially resigned this material, in much the same light as the similarly lurid, subversive and disturbing fetish-flavored fare, once offered by now-defunct underground video distributor Astaroth Entertainment, who amidst their smattering of genre fare, which this viewer more readily favored, in his collection (...'The Necro Files", the 'Faces of Gore' shockumentary series, etc.), they also handled the release of sexually sleazy and disturbing (...and that's putting it mildly) micro-budgeted flickage, depicting (...emphasizing the word 'depicting', mind you) scenes of no-holds-barred, extreme rape, forced asphyxiation, inhalants, mutilation, and anything else with similar shock value...

Movie Review: What Richard Did (2012: Element Pictures/Tribeca Film)

...oh, those pesky, albeit invariable and inescapable life decisions; with spectrum-wide variance, they have the ability to merely move us through the day, and they have the profound effect of affecting our lives...our very destiny, years to come. The waking hours.....Should I have the cinnamon toast, or the Frooty Pebbles.....Sniff, sniff!! Whoa!! Better shower before I go. Gonna ask for that raise, today.....Hey, you moron!! Pick a lane, would ya'? I'm drivin', here, I'm drivin' here, I'm...Whoa!! Almost hit that pedestrian; that was close, whew.....Yeaaaa!! Won the election. Time to make those changes, which I promised the people...especially for the people that pay me the most.....Will she say yes?? Will she say no?? Oh God, if she says no, I might just have to kill myself.....Let's see, the bottle says 'wash, rinse and repeat'. Wash, rinse, repeat...wash, rinse, repeat...Uh oh, I'm balding back there. Time to call Hair Club for Men.....OK, doors and windows locked for the night, children tucked safely in their beds, alarm clock set for 6:00. Time for bed...Good night sweetheart...Smooch, and ZZZZZZZZ!!!

...and as much as we'd adhere to...or at least, claim to adhere to a level of control, when it comes to our feelings and emotions...well, let's just say that those self-same feelings and emotions are often times running the show, and as such, are...for the most part...in the driver's seat, when it comes to our making the decisions that affect our lives. Good. Bad. Scary. Elating and Satisfying. Effectual, for the moment. And yes, even Life-Changing. And again...yes, there's the desire to maintain a measure of control, when it comes to how our feelings and emotions affect our decisions making; but let's face it: there are moments where those feeling and emotions do get out of control, and...good or bad, like it or not...we have to deal with the repercussions and end result of those situations. In the end, it's how we deal with those decisions, and the resulting outcome, which makes each of us, the kind of person we are...

Snow White XXX: An Axel Braun Parody (Wicked Fairy Tales - 2014)

Reviewed by: Rick L. Blalock   - December 10, 2015

Starring :

Riley Steele
Jessica Drake
Katie St. Ives
Ash Hollywood
Barrett Blade
Ryan Driller
Alec Knight
Eric Masterson

Synopsis
Betrayal. Desire. Malevolence. And, of course, steamy sex! Legendary director Axel Braun and adult powerhouse Wicked Pictures proudly introduce a brand new genre in the X-rated Parody market: erotic fairy tales. Featuring an all-star cast headlined by Riley Steele in the titular role and Jessica drake as the Evil Queen, "Snow White XXX: An Axel Braun Parody" is a sexy, dramatic take on the Brothers Grimm's dark story that will change the way you remember fairy tales forever.

(Runtime - 2 hr. 13 mins.)

———————

In SNOW WHITE XXX: AN AXEL BRAUN PARODY, we find that Snow White has grown nicely into young adulthood.  Her parents rule the land.  Her father, the King, and her stepmother, the Queen.  The Queen is the King's second wife, as his first wife died while giving birth to their daughter.  Since then, the reign has continued, but not without jealousy and envy from the Queen, who always strives the be the most beautiful....the most powerful of all.  For years she took comfort in the fact, that that her magic mirror had assured her that she was indeed "the fairest one of all".  But as stepdaughter Snow White grew into a beautiful young lady, the mirror's opinion soon changed, to favor her, as the most beautiful.  Something that truly enrages the Queen.  Eventually, when she's had enough, she devises a plan, to both take over rule on her own, and to possess Snow White's undeniable youth and beauty.  When her plan to kill her husband is successful(she oversexs him, with the help of 2 lovely Faes), she enlists the help of a Huntsman to kill her beautiful stepdaughter, and subsequently bring to her, Snow White's heart.  However things don't go has planned, when the Huntsman, just can't follow through with it, due to his history with Snow White's mother.  He fakes the deed by delivering to the Queen, a Boar's heart instead.  And in the mean time, Snow White takes refuge in a small cabin the the woods, which is occupied by the 7 dwarf children of the deceased couple, whom built the home centuries ago.  It is here, that young Snow White believes that she is safe and sound.  However, little does she know that via the magic mirror, the evil Queen has been keeping a watchful eye on her, and looks to further her plan to get rid of her stepdaughter, once and for all.  The Queen believes that she most certainly succeeds in doing so when, disgusted as an old hag, she convinces the fair lady, Snow White, to eat an apple, which has be poisoned. However, unfortunately for her, but fortunate for Snow White, she is soon rescued by a charming Prince, who sweeps her off of her feet.  The couple soon marry, but as the film comes to a close, it is clear that the Queen's reign of terror, is far from over.

Cinema Head Cheese: Podshort! - The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

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Movie Review: "The Killer 4 Pack" (2014; MVD Visual/SGL Entertainment)

...as an ardent and embraced lover of genre films...especially those produced independently, and on nothing less than a shoestring-budget (...I've found that they tend to try harder, aspiring to be something great, despite their limitations), this viewer...every year, about the May time frame...harbors a desire...a dream...a fantasy, to attend the Festival de Cannes, in France, and exclusively, albeit waywardly partake of the genre film offerings, often featured there. Just wander about the film festival, taking in and 'binge-watching' (...man, don't you just love these social 'terms of the moment') the newest of the new, and some often nostalgically celebrated, as far as the realm of horror and dark fantasy, both big-budgeted and micro-budgeted alike...

...alas, this viewer's own financial limitations have, at least for the time being, curbed any possibility of one day attending the internationally renowned film festival (...understandable, as word has it, the cost of attending the yearly fest, is one of those 'ouch' level of expenses...Yikes!!); still, such obstacles hardly gives cause to cease and desist the dream itself. And as amiable consolation and substitute for what cannot be, but might be, one day...well, there's always the much more compact and convenient venue of home video. Browsing the store shelves...or perhaps more succinctly, the item entries listed over at Amazon or Ebay...one cannot help but express a measure of exhaustion, in filtering though the countless multi-movie collections, out there. Public domain trash, side-by-side with mainstream pairings and couplings. Bargain basement bounty...titles, merging over titles, blurring into more and more titles. It would be so easy to miss the occasional jewel, or jewels amongst all of this generic colored glass...tarnished jewels, to be sure, but jewels, nonetheless...

Movie Review: The Fortune (1975, Twilight Time)

Directed by Mike Nichols

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

It's the Roaring twenties, and lovable con men Oscar (Jack Nicholson) and Nick (Warren Beatty), intend to separate sanitary napkin heiress Fredericka “Freddie” Quintessa Bigard (Stockard Channing in her big screen debut) from her many millions. Freddie loves Nick, but Nick is already married – and so she weds wild-haired Oscar instead. Mindful of the Mann Act – transporting females across state lines for immoral purposes was taken very, very seriously back then – the trio head for Los Angeles, California. Settling into a crumbling apartment block, much like the one in The Day of the Locust (1975), things quickly go south. Freddie rarely puts out, Oscar is not keen on finding and keeping employment, and Nick is a bit of a washout as a used car salesman. The three get on each other's nerves big time, until Nick and Oscar decide that outright homicide is the way to speed things along. Their rotten luck follows them in this regard as well …

A bit of trivia on The Fortune is the fact that the role of Freddie was originally offered to Bette Midler. Things were going just swimmingly until Midler asked Mike Nichols what pictures he had done previously. Nichols, one of the hottest tickets in Tinseltown at the time, was justifiably miffed. Hadn't she heard of his previous successes, such as The Graduate, Carnal Knowledge and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? As Julie Kirgo points out in the liner notes to this Twilight Time release, limited to 3,000 copies, The Fortune had a very respectable pedigree. Stars Nicholson and Beatty, coming off major motion pictures such as Shampoo and Chinatown, cinematography by John A. Alonzo, a script by Adrien Joyce and a stunning debut performance from Channing. It all went for naught. The film failed to click with audiences and critics, and The Fortune failed to make one at the box office. Vaguely remembered today, it’s stuck in a big pile of films about the 1920s and 19302 made by Hollywood in the Seventies – Locust, The Great Gatsby and Chinatown among them.

The Many Faces of Emmanuelle: A NSFW Photographic Journey

I love erotic fiction. One of my all time favourite novels is Emmanuelle (or Emmanuelle: the Joys of a Woman). Most believe that it was written by Emmanuelle Arsan (real name: Marayat Rollet-Andriane) but there are plenty of rumours of it being written by her husband (Jacques Rollet-Andriane).

The reader is experiencing the story through the point of view of the title’s character, which has sex with a variety of people. It was originally published in its country of origin in 1967 and in English a few years later (it was first published anonymously in 1959, but it didn’t became the phenomenon that it meant to be in the ‘60s and ‘70s.), just when the first wave of commercial adult films was thriving and that shouldn’t be too surprising as the novel’s structure works like one.

The book was adapted by director Just Jaeckin into a film, Emmanuelle (1974), with Sylvia Kristel in the starring role, and was met with enormous success both in its production country (France) and internationally. It led the way for numerous erotic films to flood the market [Jaeckin also made Histoire D'o (1975) which was also based upon a provocative novel], and it was only a matter of time before various sequels materialized (official and unofficial). And then there was the Black Emanuelle (note the difference in the spelling). And so the legendary character was played by many attractive young actresses. This article is about them, the performers that brought Emmanuelle to the big screen.

Movie Review: Exile Nation: The Plastic People (2014)

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Directed by Charles Shaw

The subject of illegal immigrants and deportation in the United States remains a raw, very complex issue. The topic has bubbled up like lava in such states as California, Texas – and especially Arizona, where law enforcement has taken a nearly “no tolerance” policy towards illegal Mexican immigrants. As the searing documentary Exile Nation: The Plastic People points out one in five Mexicans will at one time work, visit or live in the U.S.

Which brings us to the documentary at hand: The United States recently began a tough, no-nonsense policy of deporting illegal immigrants found breaking the law here, dumping them across the border in Tijuana. Many of these deportees, who do not speak Spanish, wind up homeless and take up residence in Tijuana’s dreaded “La Zona Norte,” a place of knee-high rubbish, no jobs, less opportunities and nonstop substance abuse. A humanitarian crisis that is rarely acknowledged, La Zona Norte stands as a stark reminder of the failure of U.S. deportation policies.

Movie Review: Gaming in Color (2015)

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Directed by Philip Jones

Gay, lesbian, bisexual transgender and questioning people – henceforth referred to as GLBTQ who play video games form a distinct minority. Gamers or “geeks” – a highly derogatory term in this reviewer’s term – “geek” was originally a term used to describe degraded sideshow performers specializing in biting the heads of chickens, such as in the novel and film Nightmare Alley (1947) – suffer from negative stereotyping, as do members of the GLBTQ community.

At first glance, the two stereotypes would be at odd with each other. Male homosexuals are supposed to dress well, take care of their looks, and form very sophisticated networking skills. Gamers, on the other hand, are seen as being antisocial misfit, neglectful of their appearance that lay into the Nintendo for several hours a day in their parent’s basements. A big part of the gamer community is GLBTQ, but this group feels marginalized. The readily available games to them have very few GLBTQ characters, and the gaming community at large, mostly straight males, are largely homophobic. “Gay” to these adolescent males not only describes someone’s sexual identity, but anything bad, ineffective or worthless.

Movie Review: Diving Normal (2013)

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Directed by Kristjan Thor

Based on a play, Diving Normal is a most unusual love story. Set in New York City, graphic novelist Fulton (Philipp Karner) falls for the beautiful blonde Dana (Susie Abromeit). For while, their romance blossoms, but Fulton’s neighbor Gordon (Scotty Crowe) begins to make awkward overtures to Dana. Verging on the autistic, Gordon begins to invite Dana on a series of strictly platonic dates, which consists of her watching him make high dives at the local gym. Things proceed awkwardly until Dana finds out the exact relationship between Gordon and Fulton. Dana falls back into her former patterns of substance abuse, until the men offer their own style of intervention.

Diving Normal is a very difficult film to analyze. It’s questionable that Dana would be seen with Gordon, as his character’s elevator doesn’t appear to go all the way to the top floor. Very quiet and reticent, Gordon’s character is on a tentative relationship with reality in general, let alone a gorgeous blonde. While dealing with a host of important issues, Diving Normal wisely – if unsatisfactorily offers no solutions. The audience is left in a bit of a lurch.

Movie Review: King of Herrings (2013)

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Directed by Eddie Jemison and Sean Richardson

Friends are like a crab bucket. A bucket is full of happy crabs, but once one of them tries to climb above the stale camaraderie, all the other crab will stretch out their claws to pull the more ambitious ones down to their level. This truism is very noticeable in the new indie comedy, King of Herrings. Lensed in deep black-and-whites, King of Herrings has garnered favorable comparisons to Woody Allen. This reviewer sees hints of director Martin Scorsese and playwright Paddy Chayefsky as well …

King of Herrings focuses on a group of working-class Joes who bond together in dive bars and coffee shops in a less-than glamorous part of New Orleans. Ditch (Eddie Jemison) is the group’s leader, a manic prick with a terminal case of small man complex. He bullies and berates his friends mercilessly, and they love him for it. The gang is a motley group of losers: Leon (Wayne Pere), known as “the Robot” speaks through an electronic voice box. Gat (David Jensen) is pushing 60 years of age but dresses like a twenty-something hipster. Into this circular dead-end world of semi-employment and cars with $100 bluebook value are two very desirable women: Evie (Andrea Frankle), rushing into marriage to make her forthcoming child legitimate, and the angelic Mary (Laura Lamson), a hopelessly romantic, naïve seamstress. When one of the gang, the Professor (Joe Chrest) begins his sexual advances on Mary, by ostensibly trying to sell her “magazine subscriptions,” the sparks begin to fly …

Movie Review: Pretty Peaches (1978)

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Directed by Alex DeRenzy

Die-hard daddy’s girl, light and bubbly Peaches (Desiree Cousteau) is none-too-pleased with her father’s (John Leslie) coming nuptials. Fleeing the tacky ceremony held at a rundown wedding chapel-cum-casino, Peaches lets off some steam by wildly driving her jeep off road in the surrounding Nevada wilderness. Bumping her head and falling unconscious, she awakes – after being raped, more or less by stag flick standby Joey Silvera. Peaches, her attackers, her papa and his new bride (Flower) wind back and forth through the film’s running time until a climactic – literally, swinger’s party. Peaches regains her memory and the story ends happily, kind of, sort of.

“Why do women fake orgasms?” infamous skin flick director Alex DeRenzy asks in a taped interview shortly before his death in 2001, included in this Vinegar Syndrome release as an extra. “Because they think that we care!” he declares. This reviewer isn’t giving too much away by saying this isn’t the only “hot” bit of chat the still spry 66-year-old DeRenzy reveals. He also goes into great detail about another one of his most infamous features, Femmes DeSade (1976). You’ll think you’ve been granted an audience with Satan himself when DeRenzy explains that whats and wherefores of that sick little title!

Movie Review: Salvador (1986; Hemdale/MGM/UA/Twilight Time)

...ya' know?? It's often quite interesting and intriguing, the evolution of a filmmaker. The inaugural hits...the initial misses...and that marked milestone of a film, which carries said filmmaker to greater heights, even to the point where, for good or for bad, whatever comes after, is still quite anticipated and well-received by viewing critics and audiences alike. For most, one's introduction to a specific filmmaker is typically something wrought well-after that aforementioned milestone, and after having been privy of latter, higher-profile work, curiosity prescribes...even sometimes demands one to back-pedal to that now-renowned and revered filmmaker's earlier work...

...cutting to the chase, let's just throw the name out there, 'kay?? Ready, go...Director Oliver Stone. Bam!! Right away, what comes to most folks' minds are the high-profile films of keen political rhetorics, observations and engagements, whether such things are observed and/or depicted in the exploitative media ("Natural Born Killers"), in a war-torn battleground ("Platoon", amongst others), in the high-rise financial arena (...can you say, "Wall Street"), on the grassy football gridiron (...a la, "Any Given Sunday"), or heck, even in the obvious of politically-driven locales...namely Washington, D.C., itself (..."JFK", "Nixon", "W.", etc.), Of course, there are those moments of filmmaking escapism...for lack of a better word...'breaks' in the political rhetorie, so to speak, as director Stone etches out the smaller, eclectic, more character driven stories (...of course, we're talking "Talk Radio", "U-Turn", "Savages"...the