Movie Review: Meat (2010)

I swear to the gods, Dolniak, you ever send me an arthouse style film again, I will hunt you down, prop your eye lids open with toothpicks, and force you to watch Twilight on repeat for seven straight days. And then when you’re begging for mercy, I’ll put in From Justin to Kelly and leave you there for another seven.

Artspolitation Films (*eye roll*) brings us Meat, an independent award winning film (which means absolutely NOTHING to me if it’s rife with bullshit) about…I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA. It’s basically an art film that’s trying to be exploitation and fails SPECTACULARLY. Though I suppose it succeeded as an art film in which case IT JUST SUCKS MAJOR DONKEY BALLS.

Here’s the film description on IMDB:  “A girl is awakened to a world of cruelty, shadowy passions and sensuality.” They forget to mention it’s via a fat, sweaty, lusty butcher while she films everything and all imagery is some kind of fucking metaphor for humanity or something. I get no sensuality off this film. I suppose the cruelty is the slaughter of animals and not getting love from some guy she hardly knows. I guess peeing on someone could be considered a shadowy passion - it’s not for everyone.

TV on DVD Review: Femme Fatales: The Complete First Season (2012, DVD)

Review By: Rob Sibley

Cinemax... oh don't we all have fond memories of that from are childhood and teens? Coined “Skinamax” back in the day it was always the go to channel for the more risque entertainment when the clock struck midnight.

Over the years Cinemax has evolved, they've moved from just airing straight up soft core films to actually airing their own original content. The results were nothing short of fantastic with shows like “Strike Back” that featured just the right ratio of hardcore action/violence to sex. They followed up the success of Strike Back with “The Hunted” a spy show co-produced by the BBC and starring the hottie Mellisa George. This was a classier show for Cinemax which I am sure is due to the BBC's involvement.

Next up was “Banshee” which is another winning combo of a Twin Peaks-esqe small town but littered with action and sex. Cinemax's latest show “Femme Fatales” is their latest venture into original programming. What makes this one different you may ask? Well it airs during “Max after dark” which is the prime time for softcore porn. So I didn't have the highest hopes for this 14 episode TV show. I expected plenty of skin and hot ladies but expect muggy soft and all around poor direction and production values.

Movie Review: Kansas City Confidential (1952)

Here is a welcome addition to my DVD collection from HD Cinema Classics: an HD re-master of Phil Karlson’s taught and tough late noir, KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL. Coming at the end of the noir cycle, it is one of several tough-minded pictures of the early to mid fifties with the word “Confidential” in the title. Although I am fond of Jack Arnold’s HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL, I think it’s fair to say this is the best of them. It is full of surprises, edgy brutality and moral ambiguities. It deserves to be better known than it is, which is why this new release is so very welcome.

Buy Kansas City Confidential on DVD
 

Karlson was a work-a-day director of Hollywood programmers who always brought some honesty and style to his work. I suppose he is most know today for the best of the “good ol’ boy” revenge movies, WALKING TALL. But he was also responsible for Dean Martin’s THE SILENCERS, the memorable ALEXANDER THE GREAT television pilot with William Shatner, and KID GALAHAD, with Elvis Presley. In his early career he directed several hard-hitting crime dramas like the excellent THE PHOENIX CITY STORY and 5 AGAINST THE HOUSE. And, although the payoff doesn’t quite satisfy on the level of its terse, nail-biting build-up, KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL stands with those as among the best of Karlson’s output. In many ways it plays like an early dry-run for RESERVOIR DOGS and may well have been one of Tarantino’s influences for that masterful crime drama.

Movie Review: Experiment in Terror (1962)

1962 - dir by Blake Edwards
Starring Lee Remick, Stephanie Powers, and Glenn Ford

The opening of this film is incredibly reminiscent of Hitchcock, with its lush black and white photography of a woman, Kelly Sherwood, played by Lee Remick, driving alone on the highway, top down, scarf blowing in the breeze. The score by Henry Mancini that plays over the title sequence felt like the opening music from Twin Peaks, and indeed, Remick lives in a section of San Francisco actually named Twin Peaks.

Buy Experiment in Terror on DVD!

Remick drives into her garage, and the film takes a bit of a turn into a giallo as a heavy-breathing Black Gloved Killer attacks Remick and threatens her, telling her he's killed before and he will again if she crosses him. He tells her he knows all about her and he'll be back in touch when he needs her to help him rob the bank she works at. Then he backs out of the garage, still in shadow, and leaves.