Movie Review: Dust Up (2012)

I admit I was a bit nervous about this one. Any movie that touts “a new unique (insert genre here)” usually ends up being neither. And just makes me very very angry.

But I’m happy to report that this film didn’t totally suck ass!

Dust Up is the story of Jack, a veteran who’s missing an eye (one eyed Jack, get it?), and lives out in the desert trying to be at peace with the world. His closest neighbor and friend, Mo, who dresses in an Indian bone breastplate, animal skin, and a feather for his sweatband, is about as mellow as they come. 

Jack’s handyman job keeps the bills paid and one day he meets Ella, a pretty young woman with a baby and an absent junkie husband, Herman (he’s a roadie), whose ramshackle ramshack is falling apart. While figuring out how to help, the husband returns in a panic - he owes $3500 to the local drug lord, Buzz. If he doesn’t get it by end of day, Herman is a dead man.

Movie Review: The Hateful Eight (2015)

The eight film from Quentin Tarantino brings yet another all-star cast filled with incredible
performances.  Along with great dialogue, the violence was definitely not lacking.  I was originally going to see this movie as part of the 70mm Road Show.  There were about 100 movie theaters across the United States that were showing The Hateful Eight on actual film as opposed to the digital projectors.  I was excited to enjoy the viewing experience but the cost was double what I ended up paying a week later to watch it digitally.  The film is still beautiful, and I had a great time.

The Hateful Eight takes place in the state of Wyoming where a blizzard is sweeping through. Throughout the movie, you find yourself trying to figure out who the bad guy, or perhaps bad guys, are.  This proves difficult as all of the characters are more sinners than they are saints.

Kurt Russell is the bounty hunter John Ruth and he aims to collect when he delivers Daisy Domergue who is played amazingly by Jennifer Jason Leigh.  With their stagecoach driver O.B.(James Parks) hey cross paths with Samuel Jackson who played the part of Major Marquis Warren and later run into Walton Goggins' character, Chris Mannix.  These four characters have reputations that proceed them, so everyone has an idea of who they're dealing with and it's explained why everyone is on edge.

Movie Review: Wanted (Wicked Pictures - 2015)

Reviewed by: Rick L. Blalock - November 12, 2015

Starring :

Annika Albrite
Cassidy Klein

Amber Rayne

Jodi Taylor
Stormy Daniels
Allie Haze
Jessica Drake
Chanel Preston
Mia Li
Brendon Miller
Tommy Gunn
Ryan McLane
Steven St. Croix

Brad Armstong

Eric Masterson
J. Crew
Dick Chibbles

Synopsis

The sheriff of Diablo City is as crooked as they come. He has a plan to steal a valuable deed from a woman by wrongfully accusing her of murder and having her hanged. After an impromptu rescue, four women find themselves both outlaws and unlikely friends in a race against time.

(Runtime - 2 hr. 59 mins.)

---------------

In the Adult Western, WANTED, from WICKED PICTURES and Stormy Daniels, chaos ensues when a a wealthy ranch owner dies. Confusion and greed erupts in the town of Diablo City Arizona, when a Prostitute named Joanna is blamed for Frank Garrett's death by Sheriff Clayton. In reality, Garrett loved Joanna, who suddenly dies shortly after seeing her for one last time. But not before giving her a valuable deed to a portion of his ranch, as well as a map to a secret location, indidicating that something valuable could be found there(although he wasn't specific as to what). After Clayton discovers the deed in her possession, he believes that money was the motive for killing Frank, and orders Joanna hanged, However, but before the hanging can go down, Joanna is courageously saved by 3 women(Dani, Birdie, and Lilah), as well as Frank's assistant, Samuel - who knows the truth regarding his former colleague and Joanna. After narrowly escaping a gunfight with Clayton and his Deputy, the group takes to the dusty trails, on horseback, as they hide out, and then later go searching for the location on Frank's map. Unfortunately for them however, they are soon pursued by not only Clayton, but also a Bounty Hunter named Morgan. Clayton just so happens to have caught wind of the map also, while Morgan, who was previously tracking Dani across several states, suddenly finds even more incentive, when she, of course, becomes a wanted woman. It seems that Morgan, and one Danielle "Dani" Deauxregard have themselves a storied history. As it is told to us: 5 years ago, while Dani was working as a Prostitute on Bourbon street in Louisiana, the two crossed paths. It was also on that night, that the rather sneaky Dani took the man for his money. Ever since then, the man has hoped to take her in. However, it doesn't make the situation any easier, in that he just might love her. When it comes down to it, however, Morgan agrees to accompany them on their trip(as Dani hopes to make enough money off of her cut of the wealth that they achieve with what is found via the map, so that she may help her best friend Birdie save her family's property), just as long as she agrees to let him bring her in after it's all said and done. While on the trail, and elsewhere, many sexual encounters occur, before Dani and the others are faced with one last showdown with the Sheriff, as they fight for wealth, freedom, and yes, love as well.

Movie Review: Slow West (Blu-ray, 2015)

Review By: James D.

Let’s talk about a genre that may need resurgence, the western. We had A Million Ways to Die in the West which was hit and miss, and now Slow West. Slow West is like if the Coen Brothers directed Quicksilver. Slow West has a wealth of depth in both the characters and story, that being said it is shocking that this film is by a first time director.

The flow of this film is executed well, which I feel the director had the feeling we would feel like that so he changed things around scene to scene to keep us off-guard. The film has moments of predictability but that does not take away any part of how effective this film comes across. This is a film that gets the spirit of the old west thru the history of films about it and just nails it on every possible level. If I was to have any sort of negative beside the predictability at times, it would be that this film does not have a bigger audience and was not given a run at the box office. Which both do not reflect anything that is being shown on the screen. The script I felt was so well written and gave the characters such flair and personality, that you invest in this story. The flow of the film is disrupted by some unpredictable moments that I feel if we discussed would spoil the beauty of this film. All the players in this film would be so worthy of an Oscar mention.

Movie Review: The Man from Laramie (1955; Columbia/Twilight Time)

...hypothetical question time: What makes a good western, a great western?? Is it the sweeping, spansive view of the prairie, stretching out almost endlessly across the dusty frontier?? Not necessarily; one can find that in just about any well-shot oater. How about the prerequisite conflict between the dedicated lawful, and the self-serving, greedy & corrupt...invariably culminating in the ol' cliché of meeting in the middle of town, at sun-up, for the prerequisite gun-slinging showdown?? Naw...call such things, a dime-a-dozen, in the common western film tradition. The fleeting, hero versus villain, horse-galloping pursuit, with guns a-blazin'?? The free-for-all, barroom brawl, instigated by too many aces in the deck, during a 'friendly' little game?? The grizzled ol' drunken geezer, 'teched' in the head by too much sun, and too many crazed illusions of tapping into that ever-evasive gold vein?? Same old, same old, for those who are ardently devoted to the flicker of the celluloid western film fervor...

...so what exactly makes for a superior western epic, as opposed to something more generic, routine and derivative?? Depth and complexity of character, perhaps?? Motivation of said character, hiding a much more determined, albeit underlining purpose?? Both suppressed and exposed levels of strengths, weaknesses, jealousies and insecurities?? Basically, knowing what makes such characters, tick?? 1955's "The Man from Laramie"...one of Twilight Time's most recent limited edition releases, and the fifth & final western-themed collaboration between actor James Stewert, and director Anthony Mann...brilliantly balances a more psychologically inclined study of it's varied characters, amidst the backdrop and routine staples of high western drama, culminating in a somewhat unconventional and much more compelling approach to the genre, than typically rendered...

Movie Review: "Sheriff of Contention" (2010; Rock Wayne Org./High Frontier Vent./Lionsgate)

...from studio to studio...from distribution company to distribution company...they say that for every great film script, pull out from the endless sea of extensive literary meanderings & cinematic hopefuls, and given it's due, there are at least two dozen or so others...some good, most bad...left to languish, lost and unnoticed. Occasionally, the cinematic powers-that-be, do take a gamble on a forlorn concept...one of those thought lost and discarded scripts, which most have turned their discriminant nose up at...save for that rare and singular moment of unconvention, who keenly eyes a laid-aside script of potential...something which elicits a thought-provoking 'hmmm, that's interesting'. A story interesting enough to warrant engaging, even in the midst of what might be considered muddled thespian in performance, and untried in direction & editing. Such might well have been the case, with the respectably thrilling and intriguing 2010 old-westerner, "Sheriff of Contention", which sat collecting dust on a shelf...that is, until Liongate, of all surprising distributors, recently saw fit to shed an indiscriminate and opportunist spotlight on the little film...to the delight of us devotees of the type of period Wild West melodramas, which in this case, unconventionally assume contemporary conventions, albeit on a forgiveably less-than perfect level of presentation...

...Sheriff Peavy is in the throes of almost overwhelming pressure; the people, whom he serves in the dusty frontier town of Contention City, have expressed a growing loss of faith in his abilities, saying that he is 'used up and burnt out'. The sheriff's gun-happy right hand man, Deputy Conley, has made no secret of his ambitions, in possibly replacing the sheriff, in view of his seemingly diminished stature...and even the town's mayor himself has expressed and encouraged such a prospective changing of hands. And in the midst of such personal turmoil, the sheriff...as well as the townspeople...are horrified and perplexed at a ever-increasing series of heinous and ruthless killings, which have targeted the town's womenfolk...

Movie Review: "The Beast of Hollow Mountain/The Neanderthal Man" (1956/53; Shout/Scream Factory)

...what was it, that old saying, about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery?? Point in case, the little guy...filmmaker-wise...who is inspired to 'knock off' something put out by the big-leaguers. We've seen and heard this one before, time and time again...and we've resigningly come to accept the fact that, for good or bad...for every 'Alien', there's a 'Galaxy of Terror', an 'Xtro' and an 'Inseminoid', just to give one of the more obvious examples. However, every once in a blue moon, just the opposite happens...'opposite', in the sense that a fairly good, albeit forgettable and negligible genre idea is put out there, for all the masses to see...an 'underdog' production contender, so to speak...only to have greater life breathed into such ideas, by big-studio efforts...upheld to the point where they stand out more prominently, historically, than the underlings with the original concept...in effect, making those who were there, first, almost forgotten. Alas, and yet in a way, thankfully, such is the latter case, with regards to a duo of lower-tiered classic 'B', creature-feature-style, sci-fi/horror flicks, recently showcased together, on one of Shout/Scream Factory's two-fer combo packs...

Movie Review: Slices (2009)

You know how much I love anthology movies? In case you haven't been paying attention, I adore them. I think it's an MTV short-attention span generational thing. And thanks to David Hayes, I got to watch one to wile away two hours as the subarctic temperatures raged across the Midwest. I'm not saying the flick kept me warm with its awesomeness but it did keep me distracted at least.

Slices is about a man who can't sleep and decides to spend the wee hours of the night watching a Creepshow-esque show on television, Theater of the Macabre, replete with giggling something-wrong-with-that-guy host, Lucius Phibes (sorry, had to do an eye roll at that). And Lucius brings us 5 horrifying tales to help pass the time.

Movie Review: Exit Humanity (2011)

by Peggy Christie

Exit stage left? Nope, Exit Humanity. The beginning voice over tells us that there’s a war between the living and the dead. This zombie plague has nearly wiped out the human race. Wanna know how it started? Conveniently, we found this diary of a Confederate soldier, dating back to the end of the Civil War.
Edward Young has seen Hell. His first zombie sighting is during a battle. Though he can’t imagine the cause, he accepts it and tries to return to a normal post-war life with his wife and child. Unfortunately, the dead won’t let him.

After having to kill his family, Edward decides to make his son’s resting place one of peace – a water fall he saw during the war that he drew for the boy and promised to visit with him one day. Only in death will the boy get to see it.

Movie Review: Cole Younger and the Black Train (2012)

I've never been a big fan of Westerns. It takes a really good one to grab my attention. On the same note, a really bad one will also get my attention. Unfortunately, that's what happened with Cole Younger and the Black Train. I love Michael Madsen. I could watch that guy whittle. Honestly, I would rather see that than this. In spite of Madsen's inclusion in the movie, Cole was an abysmal mess.

In a movie that borrows from history, we see the Cole Younger / Jesse James gang as they take on the town lawmen and a few vigilante volunteers. Oddly, the background story revolves around a man named Emmit, who pulls in on a black ghost train. Emmit is a grim reaper, for lack of a better term. Younger saw him as a kid when his sister died, and he's been haunted ever since.

Movie Review: Dead Man (1995, Blu-ray)

Directed by Jim Jarmusch

Starring Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer and Crispen Glover

A few of the things we have come to expect from the average Johnny Depp movie is plenty of eccentric characters, lots of wry humor and somewhat oddball story-lines. Depp stays true to form in that sense with Dead Man. At its core it's a western, with plenty of gun fights, cowboys, native Americans and gun-slinging bounty hunters. But Dead Man manages to separate itself from the genre within the first few minutes of the film, as it displays a dream-like quality to it that portrays a world that is slightly off-kilter and just plain old weird.

TV on Blu-ray Review: Hell on Wheels: Complete First Season (2011)

Since the advent of film and TV as a popular forms media, one of the most popular genres used as storylines for features, shorts and episodic television was the Western. In film early on you had John Ford (My Darling Clementine), later there was John Wayne's films captivating audiences and then of course the popularity of the gritty, more true-to-western-life classics from Sergio Leone(Fistful of Dollars and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) and Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch). Television took its cue from Hollywood by producing popular shows like Bonanza and The Lone Ranger. It wasn't until the mid 80's that film and TV fans seemed to just get bored of the genre.

Movie Review: Big Money Rustlas (2010)

Many people like to discount the Insane Clown Posse as a pair of talentless idiots whose followers represent the dumbest dregs of American society. I was one of those people. After watching Big Money Rustlas, I would like to be counted as two of those people. Assuming that most ICP fans probably can't count, I don't think that will be a problem. Look, I'm not trying to be one of the "haters." I'm just being honest. These guys aren't good at anything. They aren't good rappers. They are terrible actors. They can't even manage to do a halfway decent job putting on clown makeup. If you think I'm just crapping on this movie because I hate ICP, you're wrong. I really don't care about them one way or another. They seem like nice guys, to be honest. In fact, when I was scanning Netflix for something to watch, I got excited when I saw this title, and I immediately hit play. I pretty well got what I expected.

Movie Review: Blackthorn (2011, Blu-ray)

Much of actor/writer Sam Shepard's career has been back and forth between writing plays, screenwriting and occasionally getting in front of the camera for a wide variety of independent and big budget films. In Mateo Gil's Blackthorn the talented actor takes on the role of the iconic bank robber, Butch Cassidy.

Buy Blackthorn on Blu-ray or DVD

Magnolia Pictures (and Magnet) have been on a roll as of late with the excellent releases of Hobo with a Shotgun, The Last Circus and I Saw the Devil - now they tackle a western that puts a new spin on the continuation of Cassidy's life. Thought to be dead by many, in this story, Cassidy has taken on the name of James Blackthorn, started a new life with his young love in a secluded Bolivian forest and began to live a life of simplicity and peace. Blackthorn decides it's time to head back to America to see is long lost son. The journey proves to be complicated as Blackthorn has to deal with a violent posse out for his head and a young robber, Eduardo (Eduardo Noriega) who he meets along the way.

Movie Review: The Scarlet Worm (2011)

Directed By Michael Fredianelli

Reviewed by Greg Goodsell

Print (Aaron Stielstra) is the local dandy is a woebegone California cow town circa 1907. A refined gentleman of taste, his only real creative outlet is in the mutilation of his victim’s bodies. For you see, our “hero” is the local hit man for kindly Mr. Paul (Montgomery Ford aka Brett Halsey, The Godfather Part II). His new assignment is to wipe despicable brother owner Mr. Key (Dan van Husen, Salon Kitty) who is given to performing crude abortions on his staff. Given the marching orders to burn Kley’s brothel down to the ground, Print is given amiable cowpoke Lee (Derek Hertig) to train in the fine art of etiquette, poetry and murder … but things become complicated.

Buy The Scarlet Worm on Blu-ray or DVD

Movie Review:The Dead And The Damned (Mattai Borrani Productions, 2010)

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Movie Review: The Last Rites of Ransom Pride (2010)

Sometimes actors make indie features because they need the money. Sometimes they make indie features because they believe in the project. And sometimes they make indie features because the director has photos of them engaged in coitus with some sort of farm animal or a dead body. I prefer to think that's how director Tiller Russell was able to get such marginal Star Power as Kris Kristofferson and Peter Dinklage to make (ultimately) pointless cameos in his pet project "The Last Rites of Ransom Pride".

Buy The Last Rites of Ransom Pride on DVD or Blu-ray

I picked this one up on the cheap due both to the blurb on the back - something I never do - and the cast list. In addition to Kristofferson and Dinklage, the film "stars" Dwight Yoakum, Scott Speedman, and Jason Priestly - although I have to admit I don't recall seeing Priestly in the film at all. To be fair, I was pretty numb about halfway through the film, so for all I know there could have been a scene where a circus elephant sodomizes a hippie and I probably wouldn't remember. 

Article: Man Without a Saddle

You may or may not be aware of my work as a filmmaker. But to ste outside of my role as critic for a moment, I wanted to let you all know about my next project. It's a western with a horror twist, and a piece I am very excited about. 

MAN WITHOUT A SADDLE is based on Kipling's classic story, Mark of the Beast, transferred from colonial India to the American west of 1870. Three ex-Army regulars, Strickland, Fleete and Barton, are hired to convince a Shoshone shaman to move on to the reservation. The shaman, Tanupah, guards a stone petroglyph, sacred to his people. Fleete, in a drunken fit, urinates on the petroglyph and dishonors its spirit. In retaliation, he is cursed by Tanupah, turning him into a raging creature, half man, half wolf. After subduing the creature (an act which very nearly costs them their lives), Strickland and Barton torture Tanupah until he removes the curse. However, in so doing they all feel deep shame, and forced to examine their belief systems. This is especially true of Strickland, a deeply religious man, who finds his foundation (his "saddle") rocked to the core.